Joseph Bermingham (Photo courtesy of Washington County Detention Center)
A Cotter man has been sentenced to 172 months in prison on federal drug-related charges.
Forty-eight-year-old Joseph Bermingham will also be on three-years supervised probation following his prison sentence.
Earlier, a person who has been affiliated with Bermingham, 31-year-old Levy Derrick McGee of Yellville, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison followed by supervised probation for three years.
Both Bermingham and McGee pled guilty to distributing drugs.
The two most often mentioned drugs in the federal indictments handed down on the two men were Fentanyl and methamphetamine.
In a sentencing memorandum, Bermingham’s attorney said his client came from a dysfunctional family, that his parents separated when he was eight, and he moved from Illinois to the Mountain Home area with his mother, who was reported to abuse both alcohol and marijuana.
Bermingham’s attorney said his client had witnessed domestic violence throughout his childhood.
The attorney told the court that Bermingham had abused controlled substances since he was 14-years-old, had never been able to get rid of his addictions and, because of drugs, had been in and out of prison for most of his adult life.
According to the sentencing memorandum, Bermingham recognized that his actions were criminal and was ready to accept the consequences of his actions.
There were others reported to be involved with McGee and Bermingham in the sale of drugs. They are identified in court records as 40-year-old Anna Atchley of Harrison and 32-year-old Allen Ray Thompson, who is listed as a native of Lawton, Okla.
Federal cases were opened on Atchley and Thompson. On June 18, Thompson was sentenced to 25 years in prison with five years of supervised probation to follow, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fort Smith.
At one point, Thompson was pulled over near Harrison for a minor traffic violation and a drug dog alerted on the vehicle. Officers found almost 5,000 grams of methamphetamine, almost 2,000 Fentynal pills and five firearms. As a convicted felon, Thompson was not allowed to be around firearms.
Texts were discovered during a search of Thompson’s cellphone showing he was delivering the drugs to customers in the Harrison area. Thompson was reported to have received prepayment for the drugs via an internet-based, peer-to-peer money transfer platform.
A jury trial in Atchley’s case is now set for Oct. 7. She has been free on $10,000 appearance bond.
Bermingham and McGee are no strangers to courtrooms and jail cells. McGee has had drug-related charges filed against him in Baxter, Boone and Marion counties. Bermingham has been charged through the years with possessing and selling various drugs, including methamphetamine, marijuana, suboxone, morphine sulfate and Diazepam.
During a June 2018 compliance visit to Bermingham’s home by probation and parole officers, about $4,500 in cash were found in a backpack.
At the time of the compliance visit, Bermingham was on parole and listed himself as unemployed.
He currently has two criminal cases open and a petition to revoke his probation in a third Baxter County case.
The local cases opened on Bermingham have basically been inactive since he was taken into federal custody.
Bermingham first appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court in 2007. Since that time, 12 cases have been opened on him.
Bermingham is currently being held in the Washington County jail for the U.S. Marshals Service. McGee is a prisoner in the McDowell Federal Correctional Institution, a medium security prison located in Welch, W.Va.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI