Two more defendants indicted in the jail corruption investigation are expected to plead guilty next week. The men are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to a federal grand jury in the Lonnie Hood steroid distribution investigation. They are scheduled to be re-arraigned next week before U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar. Real estate agent Ronnie Hogan and former wrestler Gregory Bedingfield are on the court calendar for re-arraignment on Aug. 26 and Aug. 28, respectively. Re-arraignment is for the purpose of changing a previous not guilty plea to guilty, according to federal authorities. Defendants who have agreed to change their pleas may change their minds and request a trial, up to the point of entering the guilty plea. Hogan, 56, co-owner of RE/MAX Action Inc., is charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and commit perjury and two counts of lying to a federal grand jury. Bedingfield, 35, a former professional wrestler known as "Greg Sawyer," is charged with money laundering, conspiracy to obstruct justice and two counts of lying to a federal grand jury. Hogan and Bedingfield are among six individuals indicted here in June on perjury charges in the case. The charges stemmed from a federal grand jury probe into activities surrounding a conspiracy by former Deputy Lonnie Hood and others to distribute anabolic steroids, extort up to $50 a pack from inmates for contraband cigarettes in the jail, and money laundering to hide the proceeds from the operations. George Wilson, a postal service mail carrier from Ooltewah pleaded guilty in July to lying under oath to a federal grand jury here in April 1997. Thomas Johnson, 50, a former Cleveland area bank employee, acknowledged his guilt in conspiring to obstruct justice and commit perjury. Larry Shawn Miller, 57, principal of Ooltewah Middle School, currently has a Sept. 22 trial date on his charges of perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice. James Tidmore, 57, has a November trial date on his charges.
