Retired Deputy US Marshal Pleads Guilty to Bribery

NEWS. On Wednesday, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, retired Deputy US Marshal Robert Scott “Bob” Clark pled guilty a single federal bribery charge.  Clark accepted close to $77,000 over a two-year period covering at least thirty separate bribes. 

Clark would accept payments from two Arkansas bail bond agents in exchange for using sensitive government resources and providing data from those resources to the bail bond agents. 

In Arkansas, professional bail bond agents can pay a bond to the court system to get those charged with crimes out of jail.  However, if the charged person does not appear in court, the court can seize the bail bond. Before the court can seize the bond, which is sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the bail bond agent and sponsoring company have a short window of time to find the criminal and put them back in the jail. 

The nature of these bribes was to pay Clark to use his federal resources and authority to “ping” cell phone data to triangulate the criminal’s location and pass that information on to the bail bond company. 

The plea agreement details how Clark would take payments from the bail bond agents who would leave the money in a box in his yard.  In exchange for the money, Clark would falsely claim a “life-or-limb” emergency existed to a telecommunications company.  He would report that the sought after information was related to a kidnapping or a murder suspect. 

Instead, it was for absconding bond jumpers. 

As part of the plea, Clark faces eight sentencing enhancement levels because there were multiple bribes over a two-year period and the amount of money he received.  He will receive a sentencing enhancement reduction of three levels for cooperating with the investigation and accepting responsibility for his conduct. 

Clark is facing up to fifteen years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.  In addition, he must forfeit to the government the $77,000 he received from the bribes.

The case is before Judge James Moody.  It is prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas after supervisors forced Jonathan D. Ross, the acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, to withdraw from the case.

ANALYSIS.  This case has been on my RADAR for a number of years.  The company and agents who paid the bribes are my client’s biggest competitors.  The company owner who paid the bribes has waged a personal war against my client to punish him for reporting his criminal conduct to the authorities. 

However, I am not done.  People who pay the bribes are just as guilty as the ones receiving them and stand to be prosecuted as well. 

To this corrupt, criminal bail bond agent, I have only this to say:  The left wing of the plane you have been riding in just fell off.  The plane is in a death spiral, and I bet you beat the ambulance to the crash site by a good fifteen to thirty minutes.

Everybody sing along with me:  “Federal prison is the place to be, fun and festive it will not be.”

Au revoir, criminal.

Clinton W. Lancaster

Attorney. America First. Sued Hunter Biden for child support. Represented President Trump in the 2020 Wisconsin election challenge. Former attorney for the Wisconsin Special Counsel. An official “Tough Cookie” per President Trump.