NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A federal judge agreed to a brief postponement of Friday’s planned sentencing of former House Speaker Glen Casada and former aide Cade Cothren, a day after the judge acquitted the pair of three of the felonies they were facing after a jury’s verdict back in May.
During a lengthy telephone conference on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson rescheduled the sentencing for Casada and Cothren for next Tuesday.
Richardson’s ruling came the day after he overturned the jury’s verdict on a single fraud charge and two bribery charges.
He ruled that, under federal law, the pair did not qualify as “agents” of the state of Tennessee when Casada lobbied legislative officials to spend taxpayer money with a political mailing company that was secretly owned by Cothren.
Casada still faces sentencing on 14 counts where the jury found him guilty, while Cothren was convicted on an additional 16 counts stemming from the public corruption case.
Defense attorneys told the judge that they needed time to prepare for how the dropping of the three charges would affect their arguments at sentencing.
The indictment accused Casada, along with former state Rep. Robin Smith, of used their positions to steer business for legislative mailings to Phoenix Solutions, hiding the fact that Cothren controlled the company because he had fallen out of favor with House Republicans.
Smith, who pleaded guilty to a single charge of honest-services wire fraud back in 2022 and testified against her former colleagues back in May, still awaits sentencing.
