Maggio asks court to dismiss petition for prison release

Without explanation, former Judge Michael Maggio asked a federal court Monday to dismiss his own petition seeking to get out of prison while he tries to get his bribery conviction overturned.

Filed in U.S. District Court by attorney James Hensley, the motion came as the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ website indicated Maggio, 57, was not in its custody. He has been held at the Big Sandy U.S. Penitentiary in Kentucky since shortly after his surrender in July 2017.

The bureau’s website did not state Maggio’s location, but he could have been in the custody of the U.S. marshals if he left the prison for any reason. He is not scheduled for release until April 3, 2026, the website says.

In October, Maggio filed a writ of habeas corpus petition seeking to appear before a judge to argue that he was being unconstitutionally imprisoned. Maggio said his original attorney, Lauren Hoover, provided ineffective counsel by misleading him, withholding information from him and pressuring him to plead guilty to bribery in 2015.

Hensley did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Monday. His office in Conway said he was at U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

In Monday’s brief motion, Hensley wrote, “After thoughtful consideration, Petitioner, Michael A. Maggio, requests the Court allow him to dismiss his motion and enter an order accordingly.”

Maggio was a judge in Arkansas’ 20th Judicial Circuit, which covers Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties, but the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered him removed from office in September 2014 over unrelated problems, including contentious online comments.

The U.S. attorney’s office had opposed Maggio’s motion for release, saying that release on bail was “not favored” in such proceedings “and is rarely granted, because it supplies the sought-after remedy before the merits of the motion are determined.”

An ineffective counsel argument is Maggio’s only remaining hope of getting out of prison through the appeals process.

“There is no other remedy by which Mr. Maggio may seek relief,” Hensley wrote in a November court filing.

In a plea agreement in 2015, Maggio admitted lowering a Faulkner County jury’s judgment in a negligence lawsuit from $5.2 million to $1 million in exchange for thousands of dollars in indirect campaign donations.

The lawsuit was filed over the 2008 death of Martha Bull, 76, of Perryville at a Greenbrier nursing home owned by Fort Smith businessman Michael Morton. On July 8, 2013, Morton signed off on thousands of dollars in donations to several political action committees. On July 10, 2013, Maggio slashed the judgment.

Morton has said he intended for the donations to go in turn to Maggio’s campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, and some did. Maggio later withdrew from that race.

Morton and another person implicated by Maggio in the plea agreement — former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway — have denied wrongdoing and have not been charged with a crime. The agreement did not identify Morton or Baker by name.

Maggio unsuccessfully sought to withdraw his guilty plea before he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.