Scott Broden

The (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) Daily News Journal

NASHVILLE — A former county sheriff will spend four years in prison for illegally selling electronic cigarettes to jail inmates, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The sentencing of Robert Arnold, former sheriff of Rutherford County southeast of Nashville, comes nearly two years after the FBI and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation raided Arnold's home and office to investigate his involvement with a company called JailCigs, a limited liability company formed in 2013 in Georgia.

U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen, a Chicago-based judge hearing the case here, ruled that Arnold must serve 50 months, including the eight months he already has been incarcerated.

In January, Arnold pleaded guilty to wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion. His conviction represents three of 14 federal grand jury indictments in late May 2016 that accused Arnold, his uncle John Vanderveer and Joe Russell, a former sheriff's administration chief, of illegally profiting off inmates, a captive audience in a county jail, through their JailCigs business. Vanderveer lives in Marietta, Ga., and is listed in Georgia paperwork as the company's registered agent.

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The ex-sheriff offered JailCigs to inmates at Rutherford County Jail without going through the proper bidding process with the County Commission, which has authority over government contracts.

Arnold has been incarcerated since Sept. 28. He was first taken to Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Ky., about 150 miles from home but was transferred Feb. 6 to the privately run West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, Tenn., about 40 miles northeast of Memphis and 200 miles from Murfreesboro.

By law, Arnold gave up his office once he pleaded guilty. Judge William Young of Davidson County Chancery Court suspended Arnold without pay from his sheriff's duties in November.

On Jan. 12, the Rutherford County Commission appointed Mike Fitzhugh to serve as sheriff until August 2018, when Arnold's four-year was set to expire. Fitzhugh plans to run for sheriff at that time.

Arnold made $66,790 from his cut of JailCigs sales to inmates at multiple jails between December 2013 and April 2015, investigators said. He is being required to repay the entire amount.

JailCigs were sold for $12.95 plus $2 in shipping. About 10,500 units were sold to Rutherford County inmates for a total of $156,975.

None of that money was shared with the government, according to the prosecution.

Russell earned $52,234 from JailCigs from December 2013 through April 2015, according to a Tennessee Comptroller report released Nov. 16. Russell pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to the same three counts as Arnold.

Vanderveer pleaded guilty to attempted witness tampering Jan. 30 and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 6. Russell is to be sentenced Sept. 8.

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Arnold's lawyers requested an earlier sentencing hearing because he has been segregated from other inmates for his safety in Mason. His lawyers have said he would face less severe conditions at a federal prison.

Unlike Russell and Vanderveer, Arnold lost his pretrial and pre-sentencing release after the court found probable cause that he had committed domestic assault, witness tampering and intimidation of his wife following a Labor Day altercation at their home in Murfreesboro.

The ex-sheriff had sought to be released before to pleading guilty, but federal Judge Kevin Sharp, who left the bench last month, rejected the request. Sharp's ruling was based on evidence from the prosecution that Arnold sought to intimidate his wife and lied to her during recorded phone conversations about a hitman being ordered to kill him in jail.

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