Hughes given one year sentence

James Hughes, Endicott, was sentenced to a year in jail Friday, Oct. 25, in Whitman County Superior Court after being convicted of four counts of first degree theft involving grain rustling. Hughes entered an Alford plea to the charges which were the result of a plea bargain agreement.

Defense Attorney Steven Graham told the court he advised Hughes to enter the Alford plea in light of possible IRS charges in federal district court. Under an Alford plea a defendant opts to not contest the charges filed by the state but does not admit to the charges.

Graham also asked the court to sentence Hughes to six months in jail with work release to do work at the family farm.

Hughes, 54, at one time faced 20 charges. Friday’s plea bargain ended preparations for a second trial which was scheduled after the jury in the first trial July 20, 2012, reported they were unable to reach a verdict.

The charges against Hughes, who was employed by Whitgro as a contract trucker, alleged he took loads of grain from Whitgro storage sites and delivered them in his own name to terminals on the Snake River.

At the opening of the first trial in July of 2012, Prosecutor Denis Tracy said the Hughes thefts involved 164 loads of grain over a six-year period.

Tracy said the four charges in the plea agreement were the first four from 20 filed with the court. The charges involved loads taken from the Whitgro “teepee” storage unit at Winona.

Judge David Frazier noted during the trial 15 months ago he felt the state presented an extremely strong case against Hughes. He added the state’s case involved technical information which made it difficult to prove and establish guilt.

The judge said he felt the case involved an “extreme abuse of trust” by Hughes who had been provided with a key to the grain storage tank and was allowed to load grain on his own.

The judge noted a comparison of the Hughes farm production records and records of the deliveries Hughes made to river terminals indicated a yield rate which would have made Hughes the best farmer “not only in Whitman County, but in the world.”

In addition to the year in jail, the judge fined Hughes $20,000 and approved an agreed to $73,000 payment for restitution. The judge added he felt Hughes had received a “windfall” of a half million dollars from receipts for the grain taken from the Whitgro system.

Tracy said after the sentencing that the $73,000 restitution figure was the amount Whitgro has retained from payments due Hughes pending resolution of the rustling case.

Tracy reported one of the factors leading to the plea bargain is a pending case involving alleged embezzlement from Whitgro’s accounts. The prosecutor said the embezzlement was not related to the charges against Hughes, but he anticipated the alleged embezzlement would have been brought up in the second trial as part of the defense argument that charges made against Hughes were a cover-up for faulty record keeping at Whitgro.

Tracy added he plans to file the embezzlement charges in the coming weeks.