LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals panel has dismissed former Morgan County Judge-Executive Tim Conley’s challenge to his guilty plea and sentence in a corruption case.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports (http://bit.ly/1RVnPjQ) Conley pleaded guilty in 2014 to mail fraud in a scheme in which he took $130,000 in kickbacks from a contractor in the wake of a March 2012 tornado that killed six people in the county. Conley later asked an appeals court to set aside his plea and prison sentence of seven years and three months.
Conley’s attorney, Jerry Anderson, argued that Conley hadn’t fully understood the crime that he pleaded guilty to.
On June 2, judges with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal, saying a prosecutor read the elements of the charge against Conley in “readily understandable words” during his plea hearing.
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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com