Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Almost Heaven, West Virginia© 2005 Charleston Daily Mail
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
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Published: December 4, 2005 by the New York Times
Charleston, West Virginia, December 3, 2005 (AP) — Thomas Esposito's campaign for the State Legislature in 2004 seemed to be following the usual pattern. Mr. Esposito, a former mayor of Logan, issued press releases, raised money and bought newspaper advertisements. Signs bearing his name popped up in yards around rural Logan County.
But less than a month before the May primary election, Mr. Esposito dropped out, citing an ailing mother-in-law. The real reason surfaced only later: the Federal Bureau of Investigation had planted Mr. Esposito among the field of candidates to help find evidence of vote-buying in southern West Virginia.
Federal prosecutors say the tactic worked.
They say Mr. Esposito gave $2,000 to a resident who had offered to bribe voters on his behalf. They also credit the undercover sting operation for last year's guilty pleas by the sheriff of Logan County and the police chief in the coal-mining city of Logan, who each admitted to election violations.
The chief judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia condoned the F.B.I. tactic on Thursday in an election fraud case against Perry French Harvey Jr., 55, the man who prosecutors say accepted the $2,000. The judge, David A. Faber, rejected arguments from Mr. Harvey's lawyer that the government had acted improperly by putting up a sham candidate.
Mr. Esposito, 54, began cooperating with investigators in July 2003, when he agreed to plead guilty to a federal corruption charge for failing to notify the authorities of criminal activities involving a former county magistrate.
He entered the House race in January 2004, after losing his bid for a fifth term as mayor. He faces up to three years in prison for the corruption charge and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing January 10, 2006.
Greg Campbell, a lawyer for Mr. Harvey, urged the judge to dismiss the vote-buying count against his client, who faces trial December 14 th . "I can't understand why it's all right to corrupt an election when you' re investigating corruption in elections," Mr. Campbell said Friday.
But in his ruling, Judge Faber noted that even Mr. Campbell had conceded that corruption has been endemic to West Virginia politics.
December 30, 2005 — "Hound Dog" went into the federal courthouse in Charleston earlier this month to cop his plea as part of a federal investigation into election law violations.
A defendant named "Groundhog" went in Wednesday.
On Thursday, it was Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers who entered a guilty plea.
Stowers is the son of Wylie Stowers, a longtime chairman of the county Democratic Executive Committee, and brother of Lyle Stowers, vice chairman of the state Democratic Executive Committee.
Greg Stowers admitted giving $7,000 in cash to Wandell "Rocky" Adkins during the 2004 Democratic Primary. Adkins' attorney said he would plead guilty to an election fraud charge.
Co-defendants Toney "Zeke" Dingess and Ralph Dale Adkins also entered guilty pleas Thursday.
Colorful nicknames put a cornpone face on a deeply corrupt political culture that involved vote-buying, ticket fixing, controlling access to jobs, suppressing the taxes of some, graveling the roads of others.
Logan County Clerk Glen Dale "Hound Dog" Adkins admitted that he sold his vote in 1996 for $500. As county clerk, he was the chief elections officer.
How can a county hold clean elections when the man who runs the elections sells his vote?
Clifford Odell "Groundhog" Vance, a Division of Highways worker in neighboring Lincoln County, admitted that he bribed voters with pints of Kessler whiskey, $10 to $15 in cash, or both in 1988 or 1990.
They were not the first to plead guilty rather than stand trial, nor will they be the last, as federal prosecutors try once again to clean up West Virginia politics.
The state won't police itself. The feds must do the job.
In Logan County, federal prosecutors have obtained guilty pleas from millionaire lawyer Mark Oliver Hrutkay; Sheriff John Mendez; Logan Police Chief Alvin "Chipper" Porter; former United Mine Workers official Perry French Harvey Jr.; and Ernest J. Stapleton, a former commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post, who siphoned $35,000 from the post's raffles to buy votes.
Former Logan Mayor Tom Esposito pled guilty to paying off a former Logan County magistrate.
What a nest of vipers. And neighboring Lincoln County has its own set.
In Lincoln, in addition to Groundhog Vance, Assessor Jerry Dale Weaver pled guilty and plans to resign from a county office that he held for 25 years.
Voting corrupted by political machines has harmed not only local people, but the state as well.
In the past, some offenders have served time, been re-elected, and re-offended. Here is hoping the sanctions will be sufficient to deter the behavior longer this time.
| EJF Home | Where To Find Help | Join the EJF | Comments? | Get EJF newsletter |
| Vote Fraud and Election Issues Book | Table of Contents | Site Map | Index |
| Chapter 4 — Trust Our Election Officials? |
| Next — The Dirty Little Secrets of Voting System Testing Labs by Avi Rubin |
| Back — United Nations Cites Misconduct In Firing Elections Chief by Colum Lynch |