Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate William “Sam” McCann will remain in custody at the Macon County Jail while he awaits sentencing, as a federal judge denied a oral motion to allow him to be released to home confinement.
U.S. Central District of Illinois Judge Colleen Lawless said during a hearing Friday that she remained concerned McCann would not abide by any ruling of home confinement and felt it appropriate to keep him detained while he awaits a June 20 sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Bass, leading the prosecution against McCann in his trial on wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges, showed the court a 13-minute video posted to social media last Friday where McCann said that the government had been “coming after him with a pack of lies” in their case against him.
At that time, McCann was still representing himself pro se and was driving to a hearing on violations of his probation after he was released from a St. Louis area hospital last Wednesday. McCann compared the situation he was in regarding his criminal trial to “being in the old Soviet Union” and said that the federal government was only interested in a story of corruption against him rather than getting to the truth.