MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Former Tennessee state senator John Ford is expected to walk out of a Mississippi prison after serving four years for extortion. Ford was just one of long list of politicians indicted in the Tennessee Waltz corruption investigation.
He's the last one behind bars; the others have already served their time and are now free. It seems like it was just yesterday all those politicians were sent to prison, so it's hard to believe all but one are already walking free.
You've seen the video over and over of former state senator John Ford taking bribes. Ford went to prison in 2008 after being convicted of taking more than $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen wanting favors from the Tennessee legislature.
Now Ford is heading to a Memphis halfway house to finish his sentence.
Truth is if you look at his fellow Tennessee Waltz-mates, Ford won't have a problem sliding back into society.
Former state senator Roscoe Dixon, sentenced to five years in 2006, is now working as a community relations executive.
Remember former state representative Kathyrn Bowers? She was sentenced to 16 months, and last seen stumping for a candidate on Election Day.
When Michael Hooks, Jr. was released from prison, first he got a job with Shelby County. Then he went into project management and owns his own company.
As for his father, Michael Hooks, Sr., after getting out of prison he worked in sales at a local radio station until recently.
Truth is from the beginning, instead of accepting responsibility, many of these crooked politicians blamed the government.
In 2005 Ford stated, "The government has tried to show me and the others are being corrupt and villainous, when in essence they are the ones corrupt. They are the villains."
We don't know if after sitting in prison ford feels the same or if he's come to grips with the fact that even if he doesn't think he did anything wrong, the jury did.
Truth is Ford got lucky. He wasn't supposed to be released from prison until 2025. It's only because his conviction in a separate corruption trial in Nashville was overturned.
