A Wake Superior Court judge today sentenced former Rep. Thomas Wright to 70 to 95 months in prison after his conviction on three felony counts of fraud.

Wright was kicked out of the state House last month because of allegations that he used his political sway to obtain a bogus letter from a state official to get a $150,000 bank loan, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Wake prosecutors also accused him of pocketing three charitable contributions, totaling $8,900.

Jurors convicted him of fraudulently taking the loan and $7,400 in charitable conditions. They acquitted him of one fraud count.

Before the sentencing, Wright's attorney, Doug Harris, blamed the verdict on the publicity surrounding the case.

"They were prejudiced coming in," Harris said about the jurors.

Harris gave notice that he would appeal Wright's conviction and predicted that the jury's decision would be overturned.

Wright was sentenced by Judge Henry Hight, who presided over the trial.

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that Wright was led away in handcuffs. That is inaccurate.

Indicted state Rep. Thomas Wright won't have to stand trial next week as scheduled after a Wake County judge granted a delay this morning.

Superior Court Judge Henry Hight agreed to a request by Wright's lawyer, Doug Harris of Greensboro, to postpone the trial so that Harris can examine the 7,000 to 8,000 pages of evidence prosecutors provided several weeks ago, reports Mark Johnson of The Charlotte Observer.

"We would not have had reasonable time to prepare," Harris said after the ruling. "You can't just glance at" the documents.

A new trial date was not set, but Harris suggested mid-April on the five felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses that involved transactions allegedly intended to benefit a non-profit foundation butinstead benefited Wright.

Harris said it would be much later before he could defend against the felony count of obstruction of justice for pocketing more than $185,000 in campaign contributions.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (0)

Thomas Wright's lawyer compared him to the Duke lacrosse team.

The lawyer for the indicted Wilmington Democrat said prosecutors are rushing the case for the sake of politics, driving them toward the same mistakes of the infamous Duke University lacrosse team case, Mark Johnson reports.

"It appears we're picking a court date based on politics," lawyer Douglas Harris, of Greensboro, said in Wake County District Court. "The last time somebody handled a case based on politics was over in Durham and that ended up in a mess."

The protests didn't sway Judge Henry Hight, who agreed to a schedule set by District Attorney Colon Willoughby. Lawyers will begin offering initial requests in the case on Feb. 7 and a trial could be scheduled as early as March 3.

Willoughby wrote in a letter to Harris last week that he did not want the case to interfere with this year's election, as Wright has announced his intention to run for reelection. Willoughby also said he didn't want to interfere with the ethics committee proceedings at the General Assembly, where Wright has been charged with eight counts of misconduct.

The committee could eventually recommend Wright's expulsion from the House.

"Politics has no business determining when a case is held," Harris said, adding that many violent criminals wait much longer for their trials. Wright, wearing a General Assembly lapel pin, declined comment other than to say he wanted the case handled fairly.