Rep. Chris Newton set for bribery plea change
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Newton, an East Tennessee Republican, is one of five current or former state lawmakers indicted on bribery and extortion charges in a government sting called Tennessee Waltz. He pleaded innocent after being arrested in May but announced Sunday that he is resigning his House seat effective Nov. 1.
Newton said Sunday he didn’t intend to change his plea of innocent. “I am where I am,” he said. Calls to Newton and his attorney Monday were not returned.
“I prayed about it and I’m at peace with my decision,” Newton said about resigning. “I’m convinced this is the right thing to do at this time.”
The office of U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla confirmed a change of plea hearing had been set for Tuesday morning. If McCalla accepts a guilty plea from Newton, he will become the first lawmaker charged in the investigation to admit guilt. Two accused “bag men” also indicted in the investigation have pleaded guilty.
Newton was indicted along with Charles Love, a Chattanooga lobbyist, who pleaded guilty Aug. 16 to extortion and bribery. Love admitted passing along payoffs to Newton and Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga.
Barry Myers, a political operative from Memphis, pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to handling payoffs for Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis, and former senator Roscoe Dixon, also a Memphis Democrat.
Former senator John Ford is charged, too, with extortion and bribery in the corruption investigation. And Ford, a Memphis Democrat, is accused as well with threatening a federal witness.
Ford, Crutchfield and Bowers have vowed to fight the charges, while a defense lawyer said in court last week that Dixon is undecided if he will insist on going to trial.
Trials are expected to begin in November, with Myers and Love scheduled for sentencing in February, long after they might be called as government witnesses.
Ford resigned from the Senate after his arrest in May, and Dixon resigned in January to take another government job, as a top aide to the Shelby County mayor. Dixon was fired from that job after his indictment. Crutchfield and Bowers say they have no intention of resigning.
Tennessee Waltz focused on a company called E-Cycle Management that was supposedly setting up business to buy and resell used government computers.
FBI agents posing as E-Cycle representatives wined and dined lawmakers in Nashville and Memphis and met with numerous local officials in Shelby and Hamilton counties.
Newton and Love were charged with taking $4,500 in bribes. In exchange, Newton was to sponsor legislation designed to favor E-Cycle.
The charges against Newton carry a maximum punishment of 25 years in prison plus fines of $500,000, though federal guidelines would call for a much lighter sentence.