Kurt Hohenstein

Shortly after Hohenstein took office, the Nebraska State Bar Association received a complaint against Hohenstein from his former law partner, which alleged that he had stolen money from one of his clients.^[8][9] The Bar initiated an investigation, which resulted in Hohenstein voluntarily surrendering his law license and the appointment of a special prosecutor.^[8] The Supreme Court subsequently disbarred him.^[9] Though Hohenstein originally said that he would not resign from the legislature,^[8] he ultimately did so on August 10, 1993, in anticipation of being charged with a felony.^[10] Later that day, special prosecutor Clarence Mock filed a felony theft charge against Hohenstein for stealing $30,298 from a former client, some of which he used to install a hot tub and spa at his personal home.^[11] Mock alleged that Hohenstein had two faces: "There was one whose public face was of a law-and-order and hang'-em-high prosecutor," and the other was "the real Kurt Hohenstein, one who was engaged in a pattern of theft without any remorse[.]"^[11]

Hohenstein pleaded guilty to the felony charge as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in which he resigned from the legislature in exchange for not facing additional charges for other theft allegations.^[11][12] He was sentenced to a prison term between six years and eight months to twenty years at the Nebraska State Penitentiary,^[12] He was transferred to a minimum-security prison in 1994, and began working for the Gallup Organization doing telephone interviews as part of a work-release program.^[13] In 1998, the Parole Board voted 3–1 to grant Hohenstein parole, and he was released from prison.^[13]

Following Hohenstein's release from prison, he attended the University of Virginia, receiving his Doctor of Philosophy in history.^[14] He received the Hughes-Gossett Award from the Supreme Court Historical Society for a 2002 article that he authored, Just What the Doctor Ordered: the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, the Supreme Court, and the Federal Regulation of Medical Practice, 1915-1919.^[15] He joined the faculty of Winona State University in 2005 as an assistant professor of history.^[14]