Defense Focuses On Disgraced Judge’s Credibility As Baker Bribery Case Goes To Jury

By DEBRA HALE-SHELTON/ ARKANSAS NONPROFIT NEWS NETWORK

Jurors in the bribery trial of former lobbyist Gilbert Baker went home for the weekend after hearing closing arguments and deliberating less than two hours Friday afternoon.

Deliberations will resume Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. Jurors have endured two weeks of testimony, more than a little legal jargon, and two coronavirus scares that sent one former juror and a prosecutor home with the virus and led to all trial participants being tested for it.

Baker, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, is charged with bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy. He is accused of being the middleman in an alleged plot in 2013 to bribe former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Mike Maggio on behalf of Michael Morton, a wealthy nursing-home owner and campaign financier from Fort Smith.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/defense-focuses-disgraced-judge-s-credibility-baker-bribery-case-goes-jury

Defendant Gilbert Baker exits the U.S. courthouse on Friday afternoon.

CREDIT BRIAN CHILSON / ARKANSAS NONPROFIT NEWS NETWORK