LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Prosecutors recommended a sentence of more than three years in prison as well as restitution for a former Bullitt County official who for years stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the beneficiaries of estates he was managing.

But defense attorneys for John Schmidt, who pleaded guilty in September to wire and bank fraud, argued in court documents that his behavior was "out of character" and caused by depression and anxiety, requesting a judge sentence him Thursday to 27 months in prison.

Schmidt is facing a maximum of 80 years in prison and a $2.5 million fine, as well as more than $300,000 in restitution, for stealing from two separate trusts between September 2014 and January 2019 to use for his own personal expenditures.

U.S. District Court Judge David Hale will ultimately decide the sentence Jan. 4.

Schmidt, a former Bullitt County master commissioner and county public administrator, stole more than $435,000 from the estates, sometimes to pay back money missing from the master commissioner account, Zimdahl has said.

A master commissioner assists circuit courts, in part, by conducting sales of foreclosed property to satisfy liens, mortgages or claims of ownership.

Other times, he stole money to pay back clients he owed money to in his legal practice or just for personal use, she added. He has already paid some restitution.

Attorney Rob Eggert, who represents Schmidt, wrote to the judge last week that "depression and the stress of being stretched too thin financially and over-committed led him to engage in the bad conduct that has landed him in this court room."

Eggert included a quote from Schmidt's therapist: "I see John as a profoundly moral man whose own actions perplexed him."

The documents also included numerous letters on behalf of Schmidt from friends and family members.

And Eggert said that Schmidt has accepted responsibility for his actions and turned his life around.

In the prosecution's sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Zimdahl pointed out that Schmidt stole over many years from a widow's only source of income as well as a man who had to postpone his retirement because of the loss of funds.

"The scope and magnitude of Schmidt's crime are a betrayal of the public trust and the power granted to those who serve as attorneys, as trustees and Public Administrators, and the additional trust given to those serving as public officials," Zimdahl wrote.

The prosecution recommended a sentence at the lower end of a 41-51-month advisory guideline as well as any restitution not yet repaid.

A grand jury indicted Schmidt on May 2 on one count of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud. The FBI and Kentucky State Police investigated the case.

Charges of abuse of public trust and theft filed in state court by Hillview police are still pending.

A court hearing is scheduled in Bullitt County for Jan. 26.

Schmidt was appointed as the Bullitt County master commissioner in 1992.

Numerous state audits documented missing money — $67,000 in 2005, for example — while a 2011 audit included an agreement that Schmidt would reimburse $52,000 to the master commissioner account, a WDRB investigation found.

Schmidt was quietly removed from his court-appointed position in 2019. Since then, two lawsuits filed in Bullitt Circuit Court claim he stole more than $400,000 from estates he was managing.

For decades, Schmidt "was lining his own pockets with money that belonged either to his clients or the state of Kentucky," said attorney Laura Landenwhich, who represents the beneficiaries of the estate of Leo Gaston, a Shepherdsville furniture store owner who died in 1990.

In 2021, a state commission that oversees court conduct found that Schmidt was guilty of misconduct and had misappropriated $81,000 in proceeds from a foreclosed property.

The litany of audits and other findings raised questions about why Schmidt hadn't faced criminal charges or how he kept a job controlling state funds for decades.

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