LeDoux sentencing delayed once again

Health issues were again cited in delaying the sentencing of a former Holton legislator who pleaded guilty in May of last year to bank fraud charges, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said this week.

Jim Cross, public information officer for Grissom, said Tuesday that Trent LeDoux “made the motion to continue” the sentencing, which had been scheduled for Monday, because he “is sick and is receiving treatment.” The sentencing hearing has been continued to Monday, April 20, Cross said.

LeDoux, whose brief stint in the Kansas Legislature was marked by absences due to a bout with pancreatitis, was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on a conviction of defrauding a Colby bank. The scheduled sentencing had originally been set for August, but had previously been delayed three times — twice for health reasons, it was reported.

LeDoux pleaded guilty in May to one count of bank fraud after admitting that he applied for three loans totaling more than $465,000 from Farmers and Merchants Bank in Colby, reportedly telling bank officials that he intended to purchase cattle that would also serve as collateral for the loans.

It was reported that LeDoux had used some of the money to pay off existing debts and make contributions to a political campaign account connected to his 2012 campaign for the 61st District Kansas House of Representatives seat currently held by Richard Carlson. LeDoux was defeated by Carlson in that year’s primary election.

LeDoux had been chosen in 2011 to serve as 50th District representative in the Kansas House of Representatives, replacing the late Rocky Fund. But in February of 2012, LeDoux was afflicted with acute pancreatitis, and he spent several months in hospital, missing a significant amount of time in the Legislature as a result.

The original sentencing date for LeDoux was set in August but was continued a month, reportedly because his attorney, J. Richard Lake of Holton, had been appointed to participate in another trial set to begin on the same date as the sentencing. The second date was continued to Nov. 17 because LeDoux had been scheduled for surgery.

That Nov. 17 sentencing date had been continued to Monday on a motion citing LeDoux’s hospitalization for treatment of “complications developing from his severe pancreatitis,” according to a motion for continuance filed Nov. 13 by Lake.