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Former Hamblen County Trustee John Baskette has been sentenced in Hamblen County court, but the legal process has not come to its conclusion.

Baskette – who was found guilty to the lesser of two charges he faced in a trial last fall – was sentenced Friday to serve six months of a five year sentence in the Hamblen County Jail. The remainder of the sentence will be spent on probation.

However, Baskette’s attorney Richard Talley indicates they will appeal in a hearing set for April 1 in Hawkins County.

“We’ve never felt like there was enough evidence of a crime,” Baskette said. “… I’ve never seen a theft victim make a $9,000 profit.”

Last year, a Hamblen County Jury found Baskette not guilty of theft of property valued between $60,000 and $250,000. The jury, however, found him guilty of attempted theft of property and recommended a $10,000 fine.

In August 2019, a Hamblen County grand jury indicted Baskette for theft over $60,000, an offense punishable by eight to 10 years in prison. Baskette borrowed large sums of money from several people and allegedly failed to repay the debts – sometimes with bad checks – as promised.

At the time, prosecutors described Baskette’s actions as a Ponzi scheme in which new investors were recruited to pay old debts.

Talley countered by saying Baskette had repaid almost all of the debts and the case was nothing more than a simple case of writing worthless checks.

Baskette resigned as trustee on Sept. 13, 2019 after agreeing to plead guilty to job-related misdemeanors, a plea bargain that allowed him to keep nearly 20 years of accumulated state retirement. Those cases were investigated by the state comptroller’s office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Auditors with the state comptroller’s office concluded that Baskette under-invested $14.33 million of taxpayers’ dollars prior to his resignation. Keeping money in accounts that drew zero interest or an interest rate substantially below 1% cost county government $255,000, according to the auditors.