Federal prosecutors want to take 40 acres of hunting property owned by disgraced former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson to satisfy a debt he owes for pocketing more than $110,000 in bribes and rigging the state’s marijuana industry.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids filed a request Tuesday to have land in LeRoy, 15 miles south of Cadillac, forfeited to the government because Johnson has failed to pay a $110,200 money judgment stemming from the largest public corruption scandal in Michigan’s capital in 30 years.
The request was filed as prosecutors are simultaneously fighting to keep Johnson behind bars. Johnson has asked U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering to release him from prison on compassionate grounds, citing various health problems even though he has served less than 20 percent of a 55-month sentence and is not scheduled to be freed until July 2027.
Prosecutors noted Johnson is healthy enough to walk up to eight miles a day at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Duluth, Minn.. He wants to enjoy the privilege of better health care outside of prison and be with his wife, daughter, and friends, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher O’Connor wrote in a court filing opposing Johnson’s release.
“Johnson should serve his entire custodial sentence as punishment for his crime and to send a strong deterrent message to all public officials that bribery results in a meaningful deprivation of liberty,” O’Connor wrote. “The rule of law demands it.”
At sentencing, Beckering called Johnson’s actions an “unfettered abuse of power” and that he took advantage of his position to collect cash payments for himself, feast on free meals and satisfy his own sexual desires. Court filings indicated Johnson received repeated trysts with a sex worker who called him “Batman.”
Johnson and three others were convicted in the scandal: marijuana industry lobbyist Vince Brown, Oakland County businessman John Dawood Dalaly and Lansing lobbyist Brian Pierce.
The request Tuesday was filed nearly one year after Johnson was sentenced for accepting bribes while leading a state board with the power to decide which businesses got into the burgeoning medical marijuana market first.
Along with prison time, Johnson was ordered to pay the government the value of the bribes.
“Despite due diligence, the government has been unable to locate the $110,200 in illicit proceeds received by (Johnson) to satisfy the money judgment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel McGraw wrote in the request.
Read more at Detroit News