Sentencing for Joe Cooper, who pleaded guilty almost a year ago to federal charges of money laundering, has been rescheduled for May 1st. This follows a previous postponement of Cooper’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for last summer.
Former county squire Cooper is expected to be a key government witness in pending bribery and extortion cases involving outgoing city councilman Edmund Ford Sr., who, along with former councilman Rickey Peete, was targeted in a sting in which Cooper, who was cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office, wore a wire. (Peete pleaded guilty and received a sentence of four years and three months.)
Ford and Peete were indicted in November. Cooper had been arrested earlier in the year on a tip from drug dealer Korreco Green, who was in federal custody at the time. Green, who had been purchasing a car from Cooper at Bud David Cadillac, decided to work with the FBI and tipped agents to the elaborate and irregular means by which Cooper, who had a previous felony conviction, had arranged financing for Green’s automobile purchase.
Ironically, Green’s arrest had come after he missed several payments and Cooper had sworn out a warrant for his arrest as a car thief.
–Jackson Baker