NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JULY 18, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BAIL BONDSMAN SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL PHONE TAP

            SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a part-time bail bondsman from Sparta, Mo., was sentenced in federal court today for wiretapping a Springfield woman’s telephone.

             Richard A. Hugh, 54, of Sparta, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr this afternoon to 18 months in federal prison without parole.

             On July 18,2007, Hugh was convicted of intercepting the telephone communications of a Springfield resident without permission. Hugh placed the phone tap on the victim’s telephone line in December 2005 in an attempt to get information that would help him locate Basil Minor, who was a fugitive in a Lawrence County, Mo., circuit court case. Hugh recorded conversations from that telephone from Dec. 13 to 24, 2005, using equipment he purchased at Radio Shack.

            This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard E. Monroe. It was investigated by the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, the Christian County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Marshals Service.