Reporter-News Archives

Thursday, March 26, 1998

Blackley gets 13-month term for embezzlement

By BOB BRUCE Senior Staff Writer

Former Nolan County Sheriff Jim Blackley was sentenced Wednesday in Lubbock to 13 months in federal prison, with half to be spent in Big Spring and half at an Abilene halfway house.

U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings did not fine Blackley but did order the ex-lawman to pay $75,000 in restitution for embezzling more than $20,000 from his own department in Sweetwater.

Cummings ordered Blackley to spend half his sentence at the Big Spring federal prison and the last half at the Salvation Army halfway house in Abilene.

Blackley, 55, who lives in Roscoe, will report to prison in April, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Mateja.

After being freed, Blackley will be placed under three years' supervised release.

Cummings denied Mateja's request that Blackley spend his entire sentence behind bars. Under federal guidelines, the judge was able to sentence Blackley to a term between 10 and 16 months.

Blackley made a brief statement to Cummings during the 20-minute hearing.

"I still find it hard to believe I'm standing in your court in a criminal case," Blackley said. "I do accept responsibility for being here. There's no one to blame but myself."

Blackley pleaded guilty Jan. 15 in Lubbock to embezzlement from 1989-95, skimming government money intended as payment for Nolan County's housing of federal prisoners.

Cummings denied a motion by defense attorney Charles Burton of Austin for Blackley to serve the second half of his sentence under house arrest. But he also overruled Mateja's vigorous objections to the halfway house.

"We have a public official, and $1 of embezzlement is too much," Mateja said. "Public officials must not be held just to the same standard as regular citizens, but to a higher standard."

Mateja said more than $100,000 was unaccounted for in Nolan County, but most of it could not be pinned to Blackley.

The prosecutor said the government was willing to settle for $30,000 in restitution, but Cummings decided upon more than twice that amount.

Afterward, Mateja said he was pleased with the outcome.

"We were just pleased we were able to bring this matter to rest," Mateja said. "It sends a strong message to folks who might be inclined to embezzle or misapply public monies that that kind of conduct won't be tolerated."

Mateja said the resolution of the case "closes the chapter of Sheriff Blackley's tenure out in Sweetwater."

Blackley served for 13 years, from 1983-96. He was defeated by the current sheriff, Donnie Rannefeld, by about 200 votes.

Rannefeld, a veteran state trooper before taking office, said his audit turned up missing money and property, including guns.

Although there had been whispers of misdeeds during the 1996 campaign, Rannefeld said he didn't make it a campaign issue.

"The citizens made it a campaign issue,"Rannefeld said.

Rannefeld also said he didn't think Blackley would have been caught if he hadn't been voted out.

In a companion case, Eddie Jack Bond, 45, of Brookesmith, received a two-year probated sentence Feb. 24 from U.S. Magistrate J.Q. Warnick, also in Lubbock.

Bond admitted one count of failure to maintain and make entry in firearms records.

The misdemeanor charge involved the sale of at least 30 firearms.

"Blackley sold those firearms to Bond without obtaining a court order," Mateja said in February. "Bond in turn did not keep any records of receiving or transferring the weapons."

As part of his plea agreement, Bond agreed to give up his federal firearms license and his license to be a peace officer.

Records showed that at one time Bond had worked for the Nolan County Sheriff's Department and also for the West Texas Interlocal Crime Task Force in Abilene.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.) Blackley