Plea in Beverage case wraps up merit investigation court cases.

Sam Beverage, the former Transportation Cabinet State Highway Engineer, has agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct, in exchange for the dismissal of the felony perjury count against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday. This plea brings an end -- in court of law at least -- to the merit system investigations. Charges, though, are still pending and remain unresolved before the state Personnel Board.

My thoughts are that the state's case against Mr. Beverage wasn't strong enough to justify the felony charge to begin with, otherwise the plea agreement would NOT have materialized. What do you think?

Update: Sam Beverage pled guilty today as expected and will be sentenced on June 29th, presumably to probation and fine. As a part of his plea agreement, beverage is said to be "squealing" to Prosecutors about alleged bid rigging (and other illegal activities at the Transportation Cabinet, implicating Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and Commissioner of Highways Marc Williams, according to published reports attributed to Larry Cleveland, Franklin County Commonwealth Attorney.

Stay tuned.

Maybe, my caption about wrapping up the merit system investigation was a little premature!