Former Conservator John E. Clemmons Gets Potential Break on Prison Sentence

Over the strong protest of the court official who first caught him stealing from a helpless ward, suspended Nashville attorney John E. Clemmons has won approval for a plea deal that could get him out of prison in five years and four months.

In a 30-minute session before Rutherford Circuit Judge David Bragg, Rutherford Chancery Court Clerk and Master John Bratcher said he was cut out of the negotiations leading to the plea arrangement and that it amounted to a travesty of justice.

It was Bratcher, in his role as clerk and master, who first discovered that Clemmons was, without court authorization, taking money from the accounts of wards who had been entrusted to him.

Since that discovery and subsequent criminal investigations, Clemmons has admitted to stealing at least $1.4 million from four wards. He has pleaded guilty to three counts of theft of more than $60,000 in Davidson County and one count of theft of more than $60,000 in the Rutherford case. He also has entered a guilty plea in Davidson to TennCare fraud and perjury.

Clemmons’ case comes amid growing concern about the handling of conservatorships in Tennessee. Earlier this year, the General Assembly, after recommendations from the Tennessee Bar Association, approved the first major changes in the state’s conservatorship laws in a decade.

Under the plea deal unveiled Friday, a decision on just how Clemmons will serve an 8-year sentence for stealing about $120,000 from his ward Russell Church of Murfreesboro will be deferred until Clemmons gets out of prison on the charges he has pleaded to in Davidson County. Under his 18-year sentence in Davidson County, he could apply for parole after serving five years and four months.
Under Bragg’s ruling, Clemmons pending motion to serve out those eight years under alternative sentencing, such as home detention, or to get quick probation will be put on hold until his release on the Davidson charges.

Handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jump suit, Clemmons, 66, told Judge Bragg in a barely audible voice that he understood the plea deal and had agreed to it.

“He stole over $100,000 from a helpless man,” Bratcher said, barely holding back anger. “He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from wards in Davidson and he’s been doing it for 10 years.”

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Former conservator Clemmons gets potential break on prison sentence

See Also:
Nashville Lawyer Admits to Stealing  $1.3 million, Gets 18 years in Prison