A federal judge has agreed to cut short former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards' court supervision following his release from prison.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A federal judge has agreed to cut short former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards' court supervision following his release from prison.
Edwards was sentenced to three years of supervised release. His supervision lasted about 18 months before U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson agreed Wednesday to end it early.
Edwards served eight years in federal prison and six months of home detention after he was convicted in 2000 of racketeering, extortion and conspiracy for his role in a riverboat casino licensing scandal. He was also fined $250,000 and ordered to forfeit $1.8 million.
Jackson said Edwards fully complied with all of the terms of his supervision. Prosecutors and probation officials didn't object to Edwards' request to end it early.
A reality television show about the 85-year-old Edwards and his third wife, 34-year-old Trina Scott Edwards, is scheduled to debut later this month on A&E.
"Today is a happy day for the Edwards family!" Trina Edwards posted on her Facebook page. "Thanks to his exemplary conduct and record while in prison Edwin has been granted an early release from probation. It's officially over and my husband is FREE!!!"
"OMG!!!! My dad just got early release from probation!!!!" his daughter, Anna Edwards, posted on Facebook. "April 28, 1997 was the day the Feds busted into his home and office. Today the whole ordeal is over."