Ex-Arkansas lawmaker sentenced to 4 years in Missouri bribery case

A former Arkansas state senator has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison for accepting multiple bribes in Missouri, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jeremy Hutchinson, 48, of Little Rock, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, for his conviction on a charge of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. That sentence will run after previous sentences of three years and 10 months for similar convictions in the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, bringing a total of eight years in prison, the department said.

Hutchinson admitted that as a senator he was hired as outside counsel for Preferred Family Healthcare Inc., and in exchange took action in the Arkansas Legislature to help the Springfield, Missouri-based nonprofit.

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