Willard Smith was convicted of conspiracy to buy votes and vote buying in the May 1998 Knott County primary election. He was accused of paying impoverished, handicapped, illiterate, or otherwise impaired persons to vote for Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome by absentee ballot. Smith was sentenced to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome was convicted of conspiracy to buy votes and vote buying in the May 1998 Knott County primary election. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison and fined $20,000.
Phillip Slone pleaded guilty to vote buying in a federal election for offering to pay seven voters $50 dollars each for voting in the primary election. He was sentenced to hree years’ probation.
Newton Johnson pleaded guilty to buying votes in the 1998 Knott County primary election.
Ross Harris was found guilty of election fraud for paying voters for their vote. He was spared a prison sentence because of a terminal illness.
State Senator Johnny Ray Turner pleaded guilty to “non-willfully” making campaign expenditures for the purpose of influencing voters and was sentenced to three months’ home detention and one year of probation.
Knott County Judge-Executive Randy Thompson was sentenced to 40 months in prison for a vote buying scheme involving use of public funds to improve driveways and build bridges on private property. Judge-executive assistants Combs and Champion, as well as a former county magistrate, were also sentenced, receiving 36 months, 18 months, and 32 months, respectively.
Manchester City Councilman Darnell Hipsher pleaded guilty to conspiring to gain public favor by using city purchased asphalt to pave thirty-two private driveways, as part of a scheme to buy votes. He was sentenced to forty-six months in jail. He returned to the city council after his release.
Charles “Chuck” Hart, of Salt Lick, Kentucky, was found guilty of vote buying, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents. He bought votes during a Bath County primary election, and subsequently tried to contact and pressure jurors to rule in his favor. Hart was sentenced to 33 months’ federal imprisonment.
Former Manchester mayor Daugh White pleaded guilty to conspiring to gain public favor by using city purchased asphalt to pave thirty-two private driveways, as part of a scheme to buy votes. He was sentenced to eighty-four months in jail.