Murfreesboro Post
MURFREESBORO WEATHER

Robert Arnold asks President Trump for pardon




Robert Arnold

Robert Arnold

Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold is reportedly asking President Donald Trump for a pardon.

Arnold’s letter says, “Mr. President.  PLEASE — look into my case. I believe you will find I did not do anything illegal … I hope you will see, believe, and agree that I am not the villain of this story, but a victim … who deserves the head-start on getting his life back … Please pardon me.”

NewsChannel 5 first reported the story Thursday, and how the sheriff said he was a political prisoner. Arnold said he believes he did nothing wrong and he was unfairly targeted by opponents after he was re-elected sheriff in 2014.

The Murfreesboro Post reported on May 9, 2017 that Arnold admitted he “betrayed” the people of Rutherford County and lied to them when he directed the JailCigs e-cigarettes operation at the county jail, making tens of thousands of dollars illegally.

“I know I’ve done wrong. I broke the law,” the former sheriff said before Senior Judge Marvin Aspen in U.S. District Court, shortly before he was sentenced to 50 months in prison and forced to forfeit $66,970 he made from JailCigs. Arnold asked Rutherford Countians to forgive him and said one of his final hopes is that he can one day make his children proud, so “they will not be ashamed of their father.”

Despite throwing himself at the mercy of the court, officials said Arnold would have to serve three and a half more years in prison after doing time in a Grayson County, Ky., jail and a federal holding facility for the last eight months after his bond was revoked in September 2016. Once he is released, Arnold will be on supervised probation for three years, assuming the president does not pardon him.

Arnold has been in jail on a bond revocation since Sept. 26, 2016, according to a Murfreesboro Post story on May 4, 2017. In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to three counts of a 14-count federal indictment lodged against him: single counts of wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion as an official. He resigned as sheriff a day before the plea.

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