Bolt seeks to vacate prison sentence, says he’s innocent

FORT SMITH — A man serving a 100-month federal prison sentence said Wednesday he didn’t commit the crimes to which he pleaded guilty more than three years ago.

James Bolt told U.S. Magistrate Mark E. Ford he was terrified if he didn’t take the plea agreement offered by the government and went to trial, he would be convicted and die in prison.

Bolt testified in a hearing Wednesday on his motion to vacate the 100-month prison term, $50,000 fine and $2.5 million restitution to which he was sentenced June 23, 2014, on the grounds of ineffective counsel. The allegations were aimed at the two attorneys in his case, Herbert Southern of Fayetteville and Andrew Miller of Rogers.

Among other things, he said Southern, his trial attorney, forced him to accept the plea agreement because Southern hadn’t taken any steps to prepare for Bolt’s scheduled Jan. 29, 2014, trial on a 14-count superseding indictment charging him with wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Under cross examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner, Bolt said he was innocent of the crimes he said under oath before

U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson he committed. He admitted he may have perjured himself at the hearing but his fear of dying in prison didn’t permit him to risk Dawson withdrawing his guilty plea and sending the case to trial.

Bolt said he wanted to go to trial but suffered a stroke weeks before and wasn’t healthy enough to refuse Southern forcing the plea agreement on him.

In a meeting Bolt and Southern had with federal prosecutors Jan. 11, 2014, Bolt said he was forced to make up a story about his crimes that would satisfy the prosecutors and they could “sell” to Dawson in the plea hearing.

“‘That’s how guilty pleas work,’” he said Southern told him.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen Hines, who led the government’s prosecution of Bolt, testified Bolt was interested in making a plea deal and led the defense’s discussions at the Jan. 11, 2014, meeting.

He said Bolt made the suggestion he be allowed to plead guilty to a separate charge of money laundering along with the wire fraud and mail fraud counts from the indictment. The money laundering charge to which he pleaded guilty involved $24,000, Hines said.

Among the charges Bolt made in his motion to vacate his sentence was Miller, his attorney at sentencing, didn’t preserve for appeal the argument the government violated his plea agreement not to argue any sentence exceeding the federal sentencing guideline range.

The range in the agreement was for Bolt to serve 57-71 months. Bolt testified, though, during the sentencing hearing before Brooks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen Hines supported Judge Timothy Brooks’ notification before the hearing he was considering sentencing Bolt to 100-105 months.

“His performance was that of a Marine charging up the hill and looking back and saying ‘follow me,’” Bolt said of Hines.

Hines testified he was mindful of the promises in the agreement and said he never advocated a higher sentence for Bolt.

A passage from the sentencing hearing transcript showed Bolt telling Brooks he agreed with Hines a sentence of 57-71 months was fair.

Bolt also charged in his motion Southern was ineffective because he acted as an informant or cooperating agent to the FBI agent who was leading the investigation on his case.

Southern testified he knew Special Agent Robert Cessario through his investigation of another company for which Southern was the former attorney. But Southern said that case and the criminal case involving Bolt weren’t connected and he didn’t see a conflict of interest.

Southern testified he told Bolt about the connection with Cessario at the outset of his representation of Bolt because it could appear to be a conflict of interest. Bolt agreed to sign a statement waiving any conflict of interest between Southern and Cessario.

According to his plea agreement, Bolt used his Rogers nonprofit company, Situs Cancer Research Center, to obtain unclaimed property from California belonging to Community Medical Group of Corona Inc.

Cesssario testified Bolt falsified donation agreements to gain access to Community Medical Group’s assets. He said electronic equipment at Bolt’s home and at Situs showed falsified documents and forms with signatures of fictitious persons, and false notary stamps were manufactured to trick officials in California and Nevada to turn over the unclaimed assets to Bolt and Situs.

He testified investigators examining the computers and thumb drives found in Bolt’s home and the Situs office showed several donation agreements in the process of being completed.

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.

Bolt