Rick Johnson, ex-Michigan House speaker, loses bid to leave prison years early

A federal judge Wednesday refused to release former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson from prison years ahead of schedule or reduce the 55-month sentence he is serving for pocketing more than $110,000 in bribes while rigging the state's marijuana industry.

U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering said the 71-year-old Republican from LeRoy, who has been in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Duluth, Minn., since December, did not deserve a prison break under changes to federal sentencing guidelines that can retroactively shorten sentences. The judge noted Johnson already benefited from shorter guidelines before being sentenced in September.

In a motion filed Friday, Johnson cited changes in federal guidelines and asked the Western District of Michigan judge to reduce his sentence to 41 months and allow him to complete the remainder of his sentence on home confinement, beginning in March 2025.

"Put simply, the court gave (Johnson) the relief he now seeks at the time of his sentencing," Beckering wrote.

Johnson's projected release date from prison is September 2027.

Johnson's request is the latest attempt by the disgraced politician to shorten his time behind bars for orchestrating the largest public corruption scandal in Michigan’s capital in 30 years. Johnson admitted accepting bribes as he led a state board with the power to decide which businesses got into the burgeoning medical marijuana market first.

Sex, a white Lamborghini and 'Batman': Inside the Rick Johnson marijuana bribery scandal

At sentencing, Beckering called Johnson's actions an "unfettered abuse of power" and that he took advantage of his position to collect cash payments for himself, feast on free meals and satisfy his own sexual desires. Court filings indicated Johnson received repeated trysts with a sex worker who called him "Batman."

Johnson received bribes from two marijuana industry lobbyists and an Oakland County businessman while serving as chairman of the state's medical marijuana licensing board from May 2017 through April 2019. The businessman, John Dawood Dalaly, was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison while lobbyist Brian Pierce is serving a two-year sentence and lobbyist Vince Brown was sentenced to 20 months.

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