Free Republic

A convicted con artist from California who roiled a southeastern Montana community with his unlikely bid to take over its empty jail says he intends to return to the state to pursue a military training center. *snip* The company struck a deal last month with unwitting officials in rural Hardin, Mont. to take over its never-used, 464-bed jail. The plan unraveled after media revelations about Hilton's criminal past sparked an investigation by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. In his first interview since the jail proposal's collapse, Hilton tells The Associated Press that his intentions had been honest but his "tainted"...

In this Friday, Sept. 24, 2009 picture, Albert Peterson with the Two Rivers Authority stands outside an empty jail that Hardin, Mont. built for $27 million. The authority wants a California security company, American Police Force, to take over the facility. Michael Hilton pitched himself to the city as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur - a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow. But now a much different picture of Hilton is emerging from public documents and interviews with his associates and legal adversaries. (AP...

CODY, Wyo. - Michael Hilton of American Police Force arrived in Hardin with promises of Mercedes police cars and expertise in operating prisons. He delivered the cars last week, but may have learned about prisons following a 1993 conviction for grand theft. Public records from police and state and federal courts in California show that Michael Anthony Hilton, using that name and more than a dozen aliases over several years, is cited in multiple criminal, civil and bankruptcy cases, and was sentenced in 1993 to two years in state prison in California. Hilton pleaded guilty in March 1993 to 14...