JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - At least two people still face trial in a wide-ranging bribery scandal that centers on the former leader of Mississippi’s prison system, and officials say the total could eventually reach more than a half dozen.
Former corrections commissioner Christopher Epps was sentenced last week to nearly 20 years in prison, two years after he pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and filing false tax returns connected to bribes he took.
Two people who have pleaded not guilty still face trial on conspiracy and bribery indictments.
Lawyers and investigators said last Wednesday in court that six or seven more prosecutions still may be coming. They say one more person has already been indicted, but the accusations haven’t been unsealed. Most remaining indictments could come in Louisiana, they say.
Insurance broker Guy “Butch” Evans of Jackson is accused of bribing Epps in exchange for prison insurance business. Evans has pleaded not guilty to an indictment alleging that he kicked back part of his commissions to Epps, making cash payments of $1,400 to $1,700 a month from January 2013 to May 2014. That’s at least $23,800 Evans is accused of passing to Epps in meetings in the parking lot of Corrections Department headquarters or in restaurants.
Evans faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 if convicted. The government also wants Evans to forfeit the more than $44,000 he gained from the scheme. Evans’ trial had been set for June but has been delayed until at least August.
Teresa Malone, wife of former state House Corrections Committee Chairman Bennett Malone, is accused of paying kickbacks to Epps.
Malone pleaded not guilty Aug. 3 to an indictment alleging she paid Epps over nearly four years. Prosecutors say payments were kickbacks from a $5,000-a-month consulting contract Epps steered to Malone from a health care consultant. Malone allegedly got more than $170,000. She faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 if convicted.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate indefinitely delayed Malone’s trial in January after her lawyers told the judge that Malone was suffering complications from a double lung transplant and undergoing periodic treatments in New Orleans over next six months.
Epps has acknowledged accepting more than $1.4 million in bribes from private contractors. Seven other people have been convicted so far, while an eighth person, former Harrison County Supervisor William Martin, killed himself in 2015, hours before he was due in federal court on bribery charges.
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