ARCADIA, Fla. — An Arcadia man was sentenced Friday (May 31) for allegedly committing multiple crimes while dressed as a police officer along with eight co-conspirators.

Darius Hudson was sentenced Friday to 39 years and 2 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, three separate Hobbs Act robberies, and brandishing and discharging a firearm during the commission of those robberies.

Hudson was found guilty in January of 2024.

The group allegedly conspired to commit armed robberies throughout Pasco, Polk, Lee, and Hillsborough Counties, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

The United States Attorney’s Office said that Hudson and other members of the group allegedly impersonated law enforcement, drove a black SUV that was equipped with lights, and handcuffed some of their victims.

Hudson was identified as the member of the group who often brought a white backpack to his robberies that contained zip ties he would use on the victims, the United States Attorney’s Office said.

Hudson is the last of his co-conspirators to be sentenced for the crimes.

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – A fun event for an event better cause!

Friday, on Newschannel 7 at 4 p.m., Tim Pattison and Panama City Beach Lieutenant Tommy Anderson joined us to share the details of this weekend’s Florida Panhandle Toy Expo.

The event will be held Saturday, June 1st to Sunday, June 2nd at the Lyndell Conference Center from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, please watch the video above.

Copyright 2024 WJHG. All rights reserved.

In late May, Donald Trump was convicted by a New York court on 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first former president to be a convicted felon. While there are many questions that remain about what’s next for Trump, one major one is: Will Trump be able to vote in the 2024 election?

For starters, Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, can still run for president. (The U.S. Constitution has very few requirements for presidential candidates.) However, his residency in Florida calls into question whether or not he’ll be able to vote.

In Florida, people convicted of felonies cannot vote until they’ve completed all terms of their sentence (including probation and parole). That said, if a person is convicted in another state—like how Trump was convicted in New York—Florida law defers to the voting laws of that state. In New York, people convicted of felonies can vote as long as they are not currently incarcerated.

“As just this one instance shows, the state of Florida has made it extraordinarily difficult and some cases impossible for somebody with a criminal record to know whether they are eligible to vote,” Nicholas Warren, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, told NBC Miami. “The rules around whether you can vote should be easy and clear to understand, and it is the obligation of the state to provide that information to everybody who wants to exercise that role.”

Trump’s sentencing is set for July 11, so if the judge decides to sentence him to jail time—and that jail time lasts through Election Day—he would be ineligible to vote. However, the Tampa Bay Times notes, “If he is incarcerated, Florida’s clemency board — made up of Republicans Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis — could restore his right to vote.”