With a new sentencing date set, Billy Long’s defense continues to search for ways to convince a federal judge that the former sheriff deserves leniency after committing a host of crimes that led to his downfall earlier this year.

“We’re continuing to develop other information that we hope will present the real Billy Long except for the time period when he was arrested,” defense attorney Jerry Summers said. “We believe the whole picture of Billy Long is a lot different from this 28-count indictment.”

Mr. Summers declined to comment more specifically on documentation he plans to file with the court.

Former Hamilton County Sheriff Long will be sentenced Oct. 27 after pleading guilty May 5 to extortion, money laundering, drug and gun charges. Mr. Summers requested that the original sentencing date of Aug. 18 be postponed because of a scheduling conflict.

Mr. Long faces a mandatory 10-year prison sentence on the drug charge, which stemmed from an undercover cocaine transaction in February that clinched the government’s case against him.

Federal investigators already had gathered proof with video and audio recordings that Mr. Long had taken more than $23,000 in illegal payoffs from convenience store shakedowns and alleged drug-trafficking proceeds. He also was recorded giving a gun to convicted felon and government informant the Rev. C. Eugene Overstreet.

The prospect of a lengthy prison sentence because of the drug charge caused Mr. Summers to allege “entrapment” the day federal investigators caught Mr. Long helping facilitate a staged cocaine transaction with Mr. Overstreet.

Mr. Summers said the circumstances surrounding that drug deal should be used as a mitigating factor in determining Mr. Long’s sentence. The “manipulative personality” of Mr. Overstreet caused the former sheriff to do things he otherwise never would have done, Mr. Summers said.

He said the FBI paid Mr. Overstreet $18,300, as well, to help the agency bring Mr. Long down.

Asking that Mr. Overstreet be subjected to a psychological evaluation, Mr. Summers wrote in a motion filed with the court earlier this week that “Overstreet has a history of manipulating, lying to and cheating other people.”

Mr. Summers submitted several documents to bolster that claim, including evidence of Mr. Overstreet’s prior legal troubles and a book he wrote in which he said he once had a $3,000-a-week cocaine habit.

A memo also is attached to the motion from a state burial services auditor who claims Mr. Overstreet told her he was “under the protection of the FBI in conjunction with the Sheriff Billy Long trial” as an excuse for not showing up for an audit of his funeral home business in April.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble, who is prosecuting Mr. Long’s case, declined to comment but said he expects to file a response to Mr. Summers’ claims next week.

Mr. Overstreet, who previously was convicted of writing worthless checks and runs Family Mortuary in Chattanooga, has declined comment on Mr. Summers’ claims. He stated in an earlier interview with the Times Free Press that the FBI never paid him for his cooperation or gave him special treatment with regard to his own legal troubles.

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