U. S. District Judge Eric Melgren scheduled Capps’ sentencing Thursday in Wichita. Bank fraud charge. The jury acquitted him of six charges and one dismissed him before his trial.
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Capps served a bachelor term at Kansas House in 2019-20 and lost his number one Republican race of 2020.
Prosecutors said Capps filed a bureaucracy that inflated the number of workers he had at two corporations and a sports foundation, and then borrowed to pay off nonexistent workers.
Kansas State Representative Michael Capps testifies at a committee hearing on Jan. 30, 2020, in Topeka. The former lawmaker, who was convicted of lying about applications for federal assistance due to COVID-19, is seeking to avoid jail. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)
In a court filing ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Capps’ attorney, Kurt Kerns, described Capps as a “single father and a disabled American veteran with no criminal record” and for a five-year probationary sentence.
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Capps served in the air force in Afghanistan and Pakistan for nearly seven months in 2001-2002 in “difficult and damaging fighting conditions” and earned several decorations, according to the defense record. Capps diagnosed with PTSD in 2018, according to the registry, and the condition makes other people more likely to have an interaction in the behavior dicy.
The defense case also said Capps suffers from medical conditions such as high blood pressure and would be “at an increased threat of death or serious illness” if he contracts COVID-19, which is likely in prison.
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But Assistant U. S. Attorney Molly Gordon noted in prosecutors’ sentencing note that Capps engaged in “goal-oriented deception,” false payment numbers, job knowledge and income source figures to complete loan applications.
“This court rejects the defendant’s continued efforts to avoid liability, indicating his likelihood of persisting in similar conduct in the future,” Gordon wrote.