When President Joe Biden announced last Thursday that he was granting clemency to a group of individuals, one familiar name to East Texas was among those whose sentences he commuted.
Walter Diggles, who had served as the executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) and was convicted of multiple counts of fraud, had his sentence commuted by Biden. Diggles is one of 1,499 commutations announced by Biden, who also pardoned 39 individuals.
Diggles, 72, of Jasper, along with his wife Rosie and daughter Anita Diggles, were all convicted in 2017 on conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The Diggles were indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 2, 2015.
Walter Diggles was convicted of 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of theft and three counts of money laundering.
According to a press release from the DOJ, at the time of Diggles’ sentencing, he and his family had made personal use of federal block grant funds, which were intended to aid victims of hurricanes Rita, Ike, Katrina and Dolly.
While Diggles was with DETCOG, evidence showed how he used that position to approve inflated billing rates and requests for reimbursement of the funds, while his wife and daughter prepared many of those requests.
Diggles’ sentence was nine years in federal prison, and he was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution to the government. His wife and daughter were also sentenced, each, to 54 months in federal prison and made to pay restitution, also. In total, the three family members were sentenced to repay nearly $2.3 million, when they were sentenced in May 2018.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the IRS; FBI; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Texas State Auditor’s Office.
During the pandemic, a court order made it possible for Diggles to be released from prison and to serve the remainder of his sentence at his home in Jasper. His release date is now set on April 13, 2025, according to information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
