Melton Bodyguard Recio Gets House Arrest, Probation

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Michael Recio, former Jackson police officer and bodyguard for the late Mayor Frank Melton, will serve a year's probation including three months under house arrest.

by Ward Schaefer
September 10, 2009

Michael Recio, who served as a Jackson police officer and bodyguard to the late Mayor Frank Melton, will serve one year of probation for his role in the 2006 warrantless destruction of a Ridgeway Street duplex. Recio's sentence, which includes three months under house arrest, is lighter than the one year's incarceration he faced after pleading guilty in May to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights. On Wednesday, his former colleague, Marcus Wright, who cooperated with federal prosecutors, received a sentence of one year's probation with no house arrest.

At a sentencing hearing this morning, prosecutor Mark Blumberg argued that Recio should receive a harsher sentence than Wright, including a "substantial period of incarceration."

"This is a person who has tried to avoid personal responsibility," Blumberg said.

Recio, Wright and Melton all beat state charges for the Ridgeway incident in 2007. After the three were indicted on federal civil-rights charges in 2008, Wright pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to testify for the government. Recio maintained his innocence, however, through one federal trial that ended in a hung jury on Feb. 24. On May 15, after Melton's death left him the only remaining defendant and just days before a re-trial was scheduled to begin, Recio entered a guilty plea.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson agreed that Recio "does not stand on equal footing" with Wright. Still, taking note of Recio's difficult financial position, Anderson said that she sought a sentence "that would be fair and also permit (Recio) to work." According to court filings from March, Recio's mounting legal expenses had put his home at risk of foreclosure.

Anderson indicated that she would consider Recio's need to travel for work while on house arrest, "as it arises." Recio's attorney, Cynthia Stewart, would not divulge his current employment, saying that she though it was "not appropriate" to discuss.

"At this point, he's just glad it's over," Stewart said.

posted by Tony Davis on 09/11/09 at 02:16 PM