The Tennessean – by Scott Broden
Convicted ex-sheriff Robert Arnold relocated Tuesday from an Atlanta penitentiary to a Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Ala., according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Arnold pleaded guilty to wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion on Jan. 18 at the federal courthouse in Nashville.
U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Aspen sentenced Arnold on May 5 to 50 months in prison that would include about eight months of previous time served.
Arnold’s guilty pleas were for three of the 14 federal grand jury indictments in late May 2016 that accused him of illegally profiting off inmates at the Rutherford County Jail in Murfreesboro through the sale of electronic cigarettes from a JailCigs business.
The JailCigs case has gone on for more than two years and included an FBI-led raid on the home and office of Arnold in late May 2015.
Montgomery prison houses about 826 inmates
Arnold’s lead attorney Tom Dundon requested that the former sheriff stay at Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis, and the judge agreed to recommend that option during the sentencing hearing in Nashville.
Records, however, show that Arnold recently moved to the USP Atlanta, where he was located as of Monday afternoon according to Federal Bureau of Prisons website. He then went to the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, website records on Tuesday show.
The federal website shows that he’s scheduled to be released May 14, 2020.
Arnold is at at minimum security federal prison camp for 826 male prisoners located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, according to the prison’s website.
Arnold has been incarcerated since late September. He lost his pretrial and pre-sentencing release arrangements when the court found probable cause he had committed domestic assault, witness tampering and intimidation of his wife pertaining to a Labor Day altercation at the couple’s Murfreesboro home.
In addition to the federal case, Arnold faced an ouster suit from residents who persuaded Davidson County Chancellor William Young to suspend the former sheriff without pay in November from a job that pays $127,078.
The Rutherford County Commission appointed Mike Fitzhugh to serve as sheriff the remainder of a four-year term, which ends August 2018.
Arnold was segregated from other inmates at two jails before sentencing
Prior to sentencing, the U.S. Marshal Service booked Arnold initially at a jail in Grayson County, Ky., where he stayed segregated from other inmates.
In March the marshal service transferred Arnold to the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason where he remained segregated from other inmates at a jail operated by the private Corrections Corporation of America.
Arnold’s attorneys had told the court that he faced more severe conditions as an inmate kept isolated in a small cell for 23 hours per day than he would as a convicted felon serving a sentence in a federal prison.
A phone message was left for Arnold’s lead attorney on Monday afternoon, but the Nashville lawyer was unavailable for comment.
Reach Scott Broden at 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.
JAIL THIS ASSHOLE WITH THE BUNDYS…………………… AT LEAST…………….
they could lock up 80% of sheriffs being they are like mafia dons
The prison camp at Maxwell AFB is a total Club Fed. Primarily white-collar stuff like tax evasion. Swimming pool, lots of visitation allowed, fairly open ‘campus,’etc. No gang showers or classic prison movie stuff. Too bad.