Health condition spares Crutchfield jail time
U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen handed down the sentence on Thursday after hearing medical testimony from the 79-year-old’s doctor and his wife, who is a registered nurse.
‘He has a significant heart condition’ that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons would find difficult to treat properly during a prison term, Breen said in handing down the sentence, which included a $3,000 fine.
The Chattanooga Democrat is one of five former state lawmakers convicted of bribery or extortion in an FBI investigation built around E-Cycle Management, a bogus company that offered bribes to public officials across Tennessee.
Crutchfield’s attorneys had argued that his health and past service to the community should keep him out of prison, despite federal sentencing guidelines that called for a year to 18 months.
The judge noted that Crutchfield lost his law license and his seat in the Senate.
‘It is a serious and sad occasion on many fronts,’ Breen said.
The former lawmaker declined comment as he left the courtroom, but he told the judge that he blamed no one else for his actions.
He apologized ‘for the stupid things I did.’
Dr. Edmund Carey, a Nashville physician, testified that Crutchfield has a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted in his chest, has an irregular heart beat and must be monitored closely because he at high risk for heart attack and stroke.
‘He remains at extreme risk of sudden cardiac arrest,’ Carey said.
He is the second Tennessee Waltz lawmaker to be sentenced on a guilty plea. The first, former Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland, spent nine months in prison.
Former Democratic senators John Ford and Roscoe Dixon, both of Memphis, were convicted by trial juries and drew sentences exceeding five years in prison.
Former Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis, is awaiting sentencing on a guilty plea to taking Waltz bribes.
Overall the investigation, which became public in 2005, led to criminal charges against 11 defendants, including several local government officials in Memphis and Chattanooga. All have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.