Man involved in beating-for-hire turns life around

PALMER — Judge Eric Smith had to take some time to think before he handed down a sentence for William Bogart.

Bogart, 30, was the last of seven men charged with either crimes leading up to the death of Jeremiah Butler, who was killed on Valentine’s Day, 2005, or with the murder itself. Bogart fell into the former category.

Prosecutors say he was hired to rough up Michael Plummer, whose severe beating touched off a series of meth-fueled break-ins and fights. Various people were looking for Butler, who’d apparently said he’d figure out who was behind the assault on Plummer. Butler wound up dead after a struggle with one of the men, Claude Hale, 28.

“Mr. Bogart committed a very brutal assault. Badly hurt Mr. Plummer. But on the other hand, Mr. Bogart has very thoroughly rehabilitated himself,” Smith said.

In the years since Butler died, Bogart’s attorney Shelley Chaffin said, her client has gotten a job working “in the middle of nowhere,” but returns home between shifts. He also has multiple certificates and other proof that he’s completed various rehabilitation programs.

For his own part, Bogart apologized to Plummer and told Smith, “I have taken proactive moves to re-establish my life, stay clean and sober and even begin a career.”

Which, he said, stands in marked contrast to the life he led in 2005, when, “I was unemployed, strung-out and desperate.”

Chaffin asked Smith to consider a suspended sentence with no active jail time unless Bogart re-offends, or perhaps ankle monitoring. She urged Smith not to tear down what Bogart has worked so hard to build.

Assistant District Attorney Alison Collins asked for a sentence of six years with two suspended for four to serve.

“He was hired to do this. He didn’t have any personal stake in the matter,” Collins said.

After hearing from the lawyers and from Bogart, Smith took a brief recess and went back to his chambers to think it over.

When he came back, Smith told everyone he’d been looking into the ankle monitoring program and found that the Department of Corrections likes for a defendant’s release date to be no more than two years out.

So he imposed a sentence of 72 months with 34 to serve which, discounting time off for good behavior, puts Bogart in that two-year range. But it’s not up to him, Smith said. Who gets an ankle monitor and who has to serve his time in prison is a decision that rests with the penal system.

“I will adamantly recommend electronic monitoring,” Smith said. “I think it would be virtually an abuse of discretion for them not to do it.”

Hale, along with Louis Moon, 39, Michael Bay Sr., 46, Michael Bay Jr., 26, Timothy Jones, 41, and Scott Schaefer, 31, have all already been sentenced in the case.

At the end of Friday’s hearing, Smith, as he often does at sentencing, wished Bogart luck.

“I won’t let you down,” Bogart replied.