Indicted lobbyist accused of murder-for-hire plan

Indicted lobbyist Milton Russell “Rusty” Cranford tried to arrange the murder of an alleged co-conspirator in an illegal lobbying and kickback scheme, according to a federal court filing Monday in Missouri that argued he should be denied bail.

The intended victim was Donald Andrew “D.A.” Jones, 62, of Willingboro, N.J. Jones is a Philadelphia-based political consultant who accepted money embezzled from Preferred Family Healthcare, according to his Dec. 18 guilty plea on one count of conspiring to defraud Preferred Family of $973,807 from April 2011 until January 2017.

The motive of the murder-for-hire plan was to prevent Jones from testifying and describing $264,000 in kickbacks received by Cranford and one of Cranford’s employees, according to the motion to detain Cranford.

Cranford should be denied bail “because clear and convincing evidence establishes there is a serious risk the defendant will obstruct and attempt to obstruct justice, and threaten, injure, and intimidate prospective witnesses, and attempt to do so,” the motion states.

Preferred Family is a Springfield, Mo.-based nonprofit company operating substance abuse and behavioral health treatment centers in five states including Arkansas. Preferred Family facilities in Arkansas received $33.4 million in Medicaid reimbursements in 2016, among other state and federal taxpayer funds, according to court documents in the Jones case.

Cranford also played a role in the kickback case of former Arkansas state Sen. Jon Woods and state Rep. Micah Neal, both of Springdale, according to Woods’ indictment and Neal’s guilty plea in that case. Cranford hasn’t been charged in the Arkansas cases. However, Monday’s motion to detain without bail says “Cranford is likely to face significant additional charges in more than one federal district.”

Cranford is a long-time lobbyist in Arkansas whose firm specializes in behavioral health issues and services for youth. He also has represented the state’s professional association for bail bondsmen in the past.

Three Preferred Family executives, not named in court documents, paid Jones $973,807 from February 2011 until January 2017, all taken from the nonprofit group, according to Jones’ guilty plea. The money went to lobby lawmakers for Preferred Family’s benefit and to the benefit of the executives themselves, Jones’ plea documents say.

For instance, Jones helped clear up an import problem for another business owned by one of the executives, Jones’ guilty plea said. The lobbying included campaign contributions to members of Congress, according to court records. Such lobbying isn’t allowed for entities such as Preferred Family because they receive Medicaid and other government money to provide health care services to Medicaid recipients in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, with two additional small clinics in Illinois. Preferred Family, whose affiliates include Decision Point drug and alcohol treatment centers and Dayspring, a behavioral health provider, have 47 locations in Arkansas alone.

Cranford helped arrange the deal between the executives and Jones, according to his indictment. Cranford was the nonprofit group’s Arkansas lobbyist and a director of some of its Arkansas operations. Cranford received $219,000 in kickbacks from Jones in return for assistance in getting the agreement for payment from Preferred Family, according to Cranford’s Feb. 20 indictment. Another $45,000 went to Cranford’s employee and business associate, former state Rep. Eddie Cooper of Melbourne, for the same purpose, according to Cooper’s guilty plea on a related charge.

Cooper pleaded guilty Feb. 12 to one count of conspiracy to embezzle for his role in the scheme. Cooper was a member of Preferred Family’s board of directors for several years while the arrangement with Jones was in effect, according to Cooper’s plea. He also worked for Cranford as a member of Cranford’s lobbying firm, the Cranford Coalition, from 2011 to 2015.

Both Cranford’s indictment and Jones’ guilty plea were filed in the U.S. attorney’s office for the western district of Missouri. Cranford was arrested by federal agents in Arkansas on Feb. 21 and is in custody in Kansas City, federal authorities said. He’s set for a bond hearing Thursday, and federal prosecutors are asking bail be denied, arguing he is a flight risk and a danger to witnesses, according to the motion to detain.

Several times between Dec. 18 and Jan. 2, after Jones’ pleaded guilty, but before Cranford’s arrest, Cranford called a felon he knew who isn’t named in court documents, according to the detainment motion. Cranford and the felon arranged a meeting, but the location was not named in Monday’s court filing, other than the meeting took place Jan. 9 at the felon’s house. That felon, identified in Monday’s filing as “Person A,” contacted federal authorities before the meeting took place.

“Cranford has known Person A for many years and knows that Person A has a criminal history which includes acts of violence such as robberies and shootings, and has served time in prison for said acts,” Monday’s filing said. The meeting was secretly monitored and recorded by the FBI, according to Monday’s filing.

“He’s in Philadelphia. He’s in south Jersey. [Whispered] He needs to go away. He needs to be gone,” Cranford said of Jones, according to the FBI transcript of the Jan. 9 meeting. “While making this statement to Person A, Person A told agents that Cranford used his hand to make a gun-shooting gesture,” the detainment motion says.

“At the end of the Jan. 9, 2018, meeting, Cranford handed Person A five one-hundred dollar bills, while stating he would return to Person A’s residence on January 12, 2018, to further discuss the details,” the detainment motion says. That meeting did not take place.

The murder-for-hire scheme is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas and no charges have been filed as of yet, the detainment motion says.

Cranford faces one count of conspiracy and eight counts of accepting bribes in his indictment.

Nathan Garrett of Kansas City, Mo., is Cranford’s chief counsel. A request for comment by Garrett’s firm wasn’t responded to Monday afternoon or evening.

The payments from Preferred Family to Jones and to Cranford’s lobbying firms were entered on the nonprofit group’s books as consulting and training costs, according to Cranford’s indictment. In all, Cranford’s lobbying firms were paid $3 million from Preferred Family and its predecessor organization, Alternative Opportunities, for disallowed lobbying over the course of six years.

The intent of the lobbying was to steer taxpayer money, including grants, to Preferred Family operations. Jones lobbied members of Congress while Cranford and Cooper lobbied Arkansas lawmakers, according to court records.

In the Arkansas case involving Cranford, Neal pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy Jan. 4, 2017. Woods faces trial April 9 over allegations he took a kickback in exchange for his and Neal’s support steering a $400,000 state grant to a company incorporated by Cranford.

Cranford isn’t named in the indictment against Woods, but was mentioned by name in a pretrial hearing in the corruption case. Cranford was chief executive of AmeriWorks, a Bentonville nonprofit accused of paying kickbacks to Woods and Neal in return for their support. Cranford’s Missouri indictment makes no mention of the AmeriWorks allegations.

The Springdale office of Decision Point, a behavioral health provider run by Preferred Family, processed the AmeriWorks grant and received the $400,000 on AmeriWorks’ behalf. The grant was returned after federal investigators began questioning it, according to court documents in the Woods case.

Woods’ trial will include charges from a similar case in which he is accused of receiving kickbacks in return for grants from Ecclesia College in Springdale. Two of his alleged co-conspirators also go to trial on the Ecclesia-related charges: Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College, and consultant Randell G. Shelton Jr., formerly of Alma. Neal’s guilty plea included his participation in those kickback schemes also.

“He’s in Philadelphia. He’s in south Jersey. [Whispered] He needs to go away. He needs to be gone,” Cranford said of Jones, according to the FBI transcript of the Jan. 9 meeting. “While making this statement to Person A, Person A told agents that Cranford used his hand to make a gunshooting gesture,” the detainment motion says.

Cranford