Jeffco Sentencing Delayed

A federal judge delayed this week’s sentencing of Mary Buckelew, a former Jefferson County commissioner who admitted she lied to a federal grand jury last August when she denied receiving gifts from an investment banker involved in the county’s sewer bond transactions.

Buckelew, who agreed to plead guilty to one count of obstructing justice, was to be sentenced Wednesday. Sentencing was put off until June 30.

But prosecutors asked for a delay in her sentencing because she will testify in the trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, who formerly headed the Jefferson County Commission, as well as Montgomery bond dealer William Blount, and Albert ­LaPierre, a lobbyist and friend of Blount and Langford.

Langford, Blount, and LaPierre are named in a 101-count federal indictment on charges that include conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns in connection with what prosecutors described as a long-running bribery scheme related to Jefferson County’s sewer bond deals.

The three men are scheduled to stand trial May 4 in U.S. District Court in Birmingham. Buckelew entered a plea agreement but the terms of her sentencing depend on the level of her cooperation in the trial against Langford, Blount, and LaPierre, according to court documents. She was a commissioner from 1990 to 2006, and participated in the sewer bond transactions that now threaten to bankrupt the county.

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