Former Sheriff Arnold Sentencing to be May 4, 2017

Apr 14, 2017 at 09:40 am by bryan


A new judge handling the official corruption case of former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold initially postponed the sentencing until September, but has since changed the date to May 4, 2017. Arnold is awaiting sentencing in a West Tennessee prison.

Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin E. Aspen took the case from Judge Kevin Sharp who is stepping down to go into private practice.

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Aspen set sentencing hearings for co-defendant John Vanderveer for Sept. 6 and former Sheriff's Chief Administrative Deputy Joe Russell for Sept. 8.

In January, Arnold, 40, pleaded guilty to three counts of a 14-count federal indictment lodged against him in connection with an unauthorized scheme to sell e-cigarettes to county jail inmates and pocket the money instead of sending the proceeds to the county general fund and trying to conceal his involvement.

Arnold entered a guilty plea to single counts of wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion as an official. He resigned as sheriff a day before the plea.

Vanderveer and Russell are free on bond. Russell and Vanderveer also pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

Read the entire story by Sam Stockard in the Murfreesboro Post.

NewsRadio WGNS Past coverage of the situation surrounding embattled Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold.

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