LUBBOCK, Texas — Lubbock businessman Bart Reagor asked a federal judge Friday for permission to stay out of prison while his appeal goes through the Fifth Circuit. The basis of the request was his health – more specifically Parkinson’s disease.
Reagor was convicted in mid-October of making a false statement to a bank. He was sentenced on March 10 to 14 years in prison and must self-surrender on May 9.
Reagor was the co-owner of Reagor Dykes Auto Group, which collapsed into bankruptcy in August 2018 amid accusations of fraud and default. Fifteen RDAG employees, in addition to Reagor, were convicted of federal crimes.
Specifically, in the Reagor case, he was accused of taking $1.76 million out of the company following a $10 million loan RDAG accepted from IBC Bank. Reagor said there was nothing wrong with taking the money. Prosecutors said there was because IBC Bank believed the loan would be used entirely for business and not for personal gain.
A portion of the request from his lawyer, John JE Markham, II, reads as follows:
Allowing his release for the extra several months would allow him not to interrupt his current, complicated treatment regimen until it is certain that he will have to serve this sentence, something that will be known after the appeal is determined. The consequences of an improper treatment regimen are very concerning. He will obviously have to deal with those consequences if his case is affirmed. But, considering the length his term of incarceration incarcerated if his conviction and sentence are affirmed alongside the potentially unnecessary and serious disruption to his daily treatment regimen if it is not affirmed, no interest of the public is compromised by this relatively short delay.
Reagor’s appeal brief to the Fifth Circuit is due on May 23.
“I will certainly surrender whenever this Court tells me to surrender,” Reagor himself wrote as part of the request. “I know I have to face the music of the sentence this Court has given me if the Judgment and sentence are affirmed on appeal. I only ask this Court to defer my surrender date.”
The medication for Parkinson’s and the “stress/anxiety of the RDAG situation” keep him up at night, requiring additional medication.
READ FOR YOURSELF: Bart Reagor’s declaration to the court. (1.25 mb PDF)
“Many nights my mind will not stop without this medication to help me relax,” Reagor wrote. Without his regimen of medication and exercise, he said, his symptoms will be progressive and degenerative. His concern is that he cannot maintain the regimen in prison.
As of Tuesday morning, the federal judge, Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, had not yet ruled on the request.
