Former state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson lost his latest legal battle Thursday when a federal appeals court refused to overturn his Missouri prison sentence in a bribery scandal that spanned two states.
In a two-sentence ruling, a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Hutchinson’s Missouri sentence to 50 months in prison to be served after he finishes a 46-month prison sentence already handed down in Arkansas.
Hutchinson, a Little Rock Republican, is the nephew of former Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson.
Jeremy Hutchinson, 50, pleaded guilty in Missouri in July 2019 to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery in a scheme involving former top officials of Preferred Family Healthcare. In Arkansas, he pleaded guilty in June 2019 to filing a false tax return and conspiracy to commit federal program bribery.
Hutchinson could now appeal to the full appeals court. He is currently incarcerated in a federal prison in Memphis.
Another of numerous defendants in the Preferred Family Healthcare scandal that involved politicians, lobbyists and executives of the nonprofit behavioral healthcare company is to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Springfield.
Former Arkansas state Rep. Eddie Wayne Cooper, a Melbourne democrat, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to participating in a conspiracy to embezzle more than $4 million from the nonprofit behavioral healthcare agency. In his plea deal, Cooper admitted that he conspired with executives of the Springfield-based nonprofit to utilize its money for unlawful political contributions and lobbying, as well as to benefit themselves.
Preferred Family Healthcare once operated more than 40 sites across Arkansas providing behavioral health care, substance abuse treatment, assistance for developmentally disabled people and other services. Federal prosecutors said leaders at the business conspired to bribe legislators and state officials in Little Rock to keep state Medicaid money flowing to the company.
