Bryant CochranFormer Murray County Magistrate Bryant Cochran will be sentenced June 18 in U.S. District Court.
A jury convicted Cochran in December of six charges, including violating three women's civil rights, conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and tampering with a witness.
Jurors found that Cochran told one of his tenants in the summer of 2012 to plant methamphetamine under the car of Angela Garmley, a Chatsworth woman who publicly accused Cochran of sexually harassing her.
Murray County Sheriff's deputies found the drug under Garmley's wheel well after a departmental captain, who happened to be Cochran's cousin, talked to the magistrate.
The captain and deputy later pleaded guilty to lying to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy initially set a sentencing date for Feb. 20. But Cochran's attorney, Page Pate, filed a motion for a new trial. He said Murphy erred by not letting Cochran's cousin testify that she heard Garmley had drugs from Cochran's friend.
Murphy originally ruled the cousin's testimony hearsay and he upheld his ruling last week, denying Pate's request for a new trial and setting the new sentencing date.