Monica Conyers, Sam Riddle and Mary Waters - three convicted political figures - are all trying to withdraw their guilty pleas in a wide-ranging bribery scandal, claiming the government did them wrong on several fronts.
On Tuesday, Riddle became the latest of the three to try to withdraw his plea. In court documents, he claims, among other things, the government unlawfully used his statements against him, treated him as a public official, punished him severely for actions in a plea and lacked probable cause in wiretap applications.
Riddle followed in the footsteps of Waters, his ex-girlfriend. Last week, the former state representative filed a request to take back her plea in federal court in Detroit.
Waters, sentenced to probation on Oct. 6 for filing a fraudulent tax return, said that she is trying to salvage her reputation after having been indicted wrongfully.
Conyers, meanwhile, who has been trying to withdraw her guilty plea for bribery since her sentencing in March, filed her formal appeal late Monday with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Conyers is serving her 37-month prison sentence at a federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va.
In each case, though, federal prosecutors say the defendants got what they bargained for, and their pleas should stick.
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