A former corporate lawyer from Scott Township, James France, 62, was sentenced to over 12 years in federal prison for methamphetamine trafficking. As announced by the United States Attorney's Office, France's conviction was for distributing 50 grams or more of the substance. He will now face 151 months in prison, followed by eight years of supervised release.
The sentencing by Chief United States District Judge Mark R. Hornak came about after a federal jury found the Ivy League-educated ex-lawyer guilty in March 2022, following his arrest a decade ago in 2015 when Illinois authorities found significant methamphetamine amounts of methamphetamine and related paraphernalia in his car. The sequence of events that unveiled his involvement in drug distribution was told in detail in court documents, which included an arrest of an associate that led back to France and a controlled drug buy taking place at his residence in late June of 2016.
France's legal troubles were further complicated when local police, responding to an alleged home invasion, suspected his house to be a meth lab. However, that wasn't the case; they did discover evidence of drug distribution. They seized additional meth, money, and assorted paraphernalia in follow-up searches, with the DEA playing a key role in the investigations as reported by Acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti's commendation of the combined force of DEA agents and Scott Township police. Throughout the judicial process, France also attempted to sidestep justice through lying to the Court and issuing threats – behavior that likely did not win any favor with the sentencing judge.
Handling the case for the government, Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway led the prosecution, which culminated in the harsh sentence, reflective of both the gravity of France's drug trafficking activities and his additional attempts to obstruct judicial proceedings.
