Bennett Malone (January 6, 1944 – December 17, 2017) was an American politician in the state of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. Malone was a native of

Carthage, Mississippi The city of Carthage is the county seat of Leake County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 5,075 at the 2010 census. Carthage is home to the Carthage Historic District including the Leake County Courthouse, a Mississippi Landmark. T ...

, and attended East Central Junior College. He was elected to the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected for ...

in 1978, and served the 45th district from 1979 to 2015. He served on the Corrections, Forestry, Transportation, Ways and Means, and Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks committees. A businessman and cattle rancher, he was a Democrat. He was married to Teresa Dolan Malone. He died on December 17, 2017, from a long illness. On July 25, 2016, his wife was indicted for giving bribes to Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner

Christopher Epps Christopher B. Epps (born January 25, 1961) is a federal inmate and a former commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) and career employee in the state criminal justice system though he started his career as a teacher. Appoi ...

through former legislator, Cecil McCrory, from 2010 until 2014, on behalf of medical services provider AdminPros LLC. She initially pleaded not guilty. On October 6, 2017, she changed her plea to guilty to paying kickbacks to Epps in exchange for receiving an MDOC consulting agreement. She admitted to getting $225,000.00 from the agreement with an out-of-state contractor arranged by Epps, receiving $5,000.00 monthly between October, 2010, through July, 2014, from which she paid Epps between $1,000.00 to $1,750.00 month. Malone was to be sentenced on January 10, 2018, by federal Judge Henry Travillion Wingate and faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000.00 fine.Wife of Former Representative Pleads guilty to Paying Kickbacks to Former Corrections Commissioner

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, October 6, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2018. However she was admitted to a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital due to complications from a lung transplant, and Judge Wingate indefinitely delayed her sentencing. Malone was sentenced on May 24, 2019. She is being held at the FMC Carswell, in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, with a scheduled release date of July 24, 2022.Teresa Malone
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Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

'' Inmate Locater. Retrieved November 27, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malone, Bennett 1944 births 2017 deaths People from Carthage, Mississippi Businesspeople from Mississippi Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Mississippi Legislature 20th-century American businesspeople