Disgraced Gary attorney Jerry Jarrett has a May court date in Fort Wayne to receive a prison sentence for a 2004 money laundering conviction.

But he is hoping to defer that date even longer through post-trial motions that he claims could invalidate the conviction against him. Jarrett faces a maximum penalty of more than five years in prison and $92,000 in fines.

Jarrett appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming he was the victim of vindictive prosecution. The high court declined in November to hear his case.

In December 2004, Jarrett was convicted of accepting $20,000 in 1999 in exchange for laundering $92,000 in profits from two drug dealers, Carlos Ripoll and Gregory Goode.

The dealers said Jarrett disguised the payments as investments in a novelty business Jarrett created that purportedly sold products to left-handed people.

Though Jarrett was convicted by a jury, U.S. District Court Judge William Lee overturned the conviction. Lee based his decision on evidence the case against Jarrett was lodged in response to the defense attorney's success in a separate high-profile case involving a Gary doctor accused of selling prescriptions.

Dr. Jong Bek was initially charged with murder in state court for selling the orders for pain killers, but Jarrett successfully argued for the charges to be dismissed.

Bek later was charged again in federal court on lesser counts, but Jarrett had to bow out of that case after prosecutors slapped him with charges for money laundering. Bek eventually was found guilty and is suing Jarrett in civil court to recoup a retainer he paid to Jarrett's firm.

Lee wrote the timing of the money laundering case against Jarrett was suspicious because the information had existed for years, yet the government only acted on it after Jarrett got the murder charges against Bek dismissed.

The U.S. attorney's office successfully appealed Lee's decision, but the appeal left open Jarrett's ability to file post-trial motions to invalidate the conviction.