Lawyers for ex-state senator Gilbert Baker ask to delay retrial on federal bribery, wire-fraud

Lawyers for ex-state senator Gilbert Baker ask to delay retrial on federal bribery, wire-fraud charges


Defense attorneys for Gilbert Baker, the Republican Party operative and former state senator who was acquitted of conspiracy to bribe a judge last month, requested a delay of their client's retrial, which had been scheduled to start Oct. 4.

Baker was set to stand trial on one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and seven counts of honest-services wire fraud after a jury deadlocked on those charges last month.

The former political fundraiser and past chairman of the state Republican party was accused of acting as a middleman in an effort to bribe former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Mike Maggio to reduce a $5.2 million jury award against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in 2013 in a lawsuit filed by the family of Martha Bull.

Bull died two weeks after being admitted for a one-month rehabilitation stint at the center.

Baker's attorneys, Blake Hendrix and Annie Depper, said in their Wednesday motion to continue that "counsel will not have adequate time and opportunity to prepare for the retrial" due to a backlog of cases both lawyers are set to try this month and next. There hasn't yet been a ruling on the motion.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/sep/04/lawyers-for-ex-state-senator-gilbert-baker-ask-to/?news-politics