Former Henry County Sheriff Frank Cassell, who ended more than 50 years of law enforcement leading a department where officers dealt drugs and stole evidence, will be the first to be sentenced as the corruption scandal's end game begins next week in federal court.

In preparation, prosecutors this week filed a motion arguing that Cassell, 69, who pleaded guilty in May to making a false statement to an investigator, deserves a "significant and lengthy" prison sentence -- something closer to the five-year maximum rather than the six to 12 months recommended by sentencing guidelines, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said Friday.

Cassell's appearance in Roanoke, set for 9 a.m. Tuesday, is the first of 11 sentencing hearings scheduled next week in the Henry County case.

Of 20 defendants indicted on Halloween last year, 17 -- including Cassell -- pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. Two more reached pretrial diversion agreements that will clear their charges if they stay out of trouble.

One defendant is scheduled for a jury trial in October.

In Cassell's case, sentencing arguments are expected to revolve around character, with the defense likely to argue that he was trying to help a former deputy who had fallen on hard times.

Prosecutors have played tapes of the sheriff telling the former deputy, who became a government informant, he wouldn't tell anyone that the officer had sold cocaine. Bondurant said Cassell contributed to a range of crimes by turning a blind eye to his officers' doings from 2001 to 2006.

Cassell could not be contacted Friday. His legal team released a statement noting that in a plea agreement announced in May, prosecutors dropped four of five charges against him and allowed for the possibility of a sentence that may be served at home.

"Frank Cassell is a good man. He has spent fifty years serving the people of Virginia and Henry County in law enforcement," Roanoke attorney John Lichtenstein wrote in an e-mail. "We have confidence the court will sentence him fairly."

Bondurant said the motion prosecutors filed for an "upward departure" from the sentencing guidelines is based on the purpose and seriousness of the sheriff's false statement.

The motion argues that in lying to an investigator about his knowledge of the former deputy's drug sales, Cassell took part in attempted money laundering and became an accessory after the fact to cocaine dealing, crimes with which he was never charged.

A sentence that took either of these roles into account would be 30 months, the motion said.

The motion says that former Roanoke police Officer Frederick Pledge, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to racketeering charges, was sentenced to about eight years in prison for an offense that "pales in comparison with the crimes and corruption of the highest ranking law enforcement officer for Henry County."

The motion argues that Cassell disrupted "police power, perhaps the most important form of authority a government exercises over its people ... police abuses of the public trust send a message to the public that the police are unworthy of respect, and by extension neither is the government that the police represent."

One of the former officers who will not be involved in next week's sentencings is Jason Allen Burton, who was charged with weapons violations but was not linked to the wider corruption in other parts of the department. Burton said Friday that he has started general study classes at Patrick Henry Community College.

Along with former Deputy Jonathan Roberson, Burton was charged with possessing a rifle that was illegally modified to automatic fire capability and which had an obliterated serial number. The weapon had been owned by several officers, and Burton had traded a deer rifle for it.

Under pretrial diversion agreements, the charges against Burton and Roberson will be dropped if they commit no other offenses for a year.

Burton said he has not really kept up with the ongoing case and is happy not to be among the defendants facing sentencing.

"I'm just glad I'm going to have a chance," Burton said.