MILTON — Former Milton Mayor and United Way of Santa Rosa Director Guy Thompson's fate will remain unknown for another month as it has been decided that his sentencing has been moved from 1 p.m. July 29 to 2 p.m. Aug. 30. The move in dates was made, according to court documents, to allow Thompson's defense team to provide the courts additional information into Thompson's "physical and mental health."
Thompson's attorney, Ryan Cardoso, said that they had retained a doctor to perform a forensics mental health evaluation on Thompson that will take several weeks to complete. Cardoso said in his motion to move the date that his team was also in the process of gathering medical records and letters from Thompson's doctors.
"At age 65, Mr. Thompson has medical conditions that should be presented to the court prior to sentencing," Cardoso said. "Counsel has already received some medical records and will be reaching out to Mr. Thompson's doctors for letters detailing his current medical conditions and ongoing treatment."
The motion indicated Thompson had been complying with conditions of his probation, including keeping a regular call in with a probation officer.
In May, Thompson plead guilty to 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion stemming from his time as executive director of the former United Way of Santa Rosa. Between at least 2011 and 2018, Thompson embezzled money belonging to the branch while he served as director, according to information from Lawrence Keefe, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
Officials said Thompson maintained his scheme by making fraudulent misrepresentations to United Way of Santa Rosa County’s board members and employees, its parent nonprofit United Way Worldwide, and bank personnel. He also took steps to prevent internal or external audits of the local branch from occurring that would have uncovered his fraud, officials said.
“Thompson then failed to report to the Internal Revenue Services the extra income from his embezzlement scheme, which ranged from approximately $86,000 to $99,000 in a given year,” officials said in a news release.
Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Thompson will also be ordered to make restitution and the government intends to forfeit all proceeds of Thompson’s fraud.
Thompson's sentencing will take place at the Arnow Federal Building, 100 North Palafox Street in Pensacola.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Thompson sentencing postponed to August