Detroit — Federal prosecutors Monday fought the release of imprisoned contractor Bobby Ferguson, calling him a "tyrant" and saying he should spend the next 10 years behind bars for teaming with former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to extort businessmen and corrupt city government.
Prosecutors filed a 33-page response to a request for compassionate release by Ferguson, who last month argued President Donald Trump created a sentencing disparity in January by commuting Kilpatrick's 28-year prison sentence for racketeering conspiracy. Ferguson's 21-year sentence was not commuted, and he remains incarcerated in a low-security federal prison in eastern Ohio.
Ferguson's request threatens to shorten one of the longest sentences for public corruption in U.S. history and alter punishment for participating in a racketeering conspiracy that helped push Detroit to the brink of bankruptcy. He was convicted of nine charges, including racketeering conspiracy, bribery and extortion in March 2013 after a six-month trial featuring testimony about how he extorted tens of millions of dollars in city contracts