Nearly nine years have passed, but convicted swindler Patrick Dallas Graham is still upset that Circuit Court Judge David Darnold did not release him from prison after the first four months of his 15-year prison sentence.
Unfortunately, for Graham, District Judge Nanette K. Laughery did not have much sympathy for his point of view and turned down his habeas corpus petition Wednesday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
In his petition, Graham said the Department of Corrections "violated his rights to due process when it submitted an erroneous parole eligibility report" to Barton County Circuit Court. He also claims Darnold violated his rights when he failed to grant him a hearing on his request to be released after 120 days.
The judge noted that the 120-day callback is "purely discretionary. No protected liberty interest has been created."
The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Graham cannot file it again. Graham, who has tried numerous times to have his conviction tossed out or his sentence reduced, still has an action pending in Cole County Circuit Court.
Graham was convicted of fraud after fleecing more than 500 investors, including pop singer Pat Boone, and the Herschend family, owners of Silver Dollar City in Branson, out of more than $5 million they invested in Conquest Labs, which Graham said was working on a vaccine to cure the AIDS virus, as well as other vaccines that would cure cancer and Alzheimer's Disease. In fact, no vaccines existed, and Graham was pouring the proceeds into his own pockets.
He was indicted by a Barton County grand jury in February 1996, following a May 23, 1995, raid of his office on the Lamar square.
More background on the Graham case is featured at this link.
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