Even As Steve Henry Pleads Guilty To Criminal Charges, He Can't Resist The Temptation To Attempt To "SPIN" His Guilt. *SIGH*.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — No sooner had Steve Henry been pronounced guilty Tuesday afternoon of violating Kentucky election-finance laws in connection with his unsuccessful 2007 gubernatorial campaign than he proceeded to launch a spirited defense that he chose not to present in court.

The case against him amounted to nothing more than a “political witch hunt” instigated by then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo, Henry told reporters. His accusers were liars, he said, and the evidence against him was weak. The investigation of his conduct cost a staggering $900,000 but was able to identify only in a few “Mickey Mouse” inadvertent violations.

Henry even questioned the presence of certain spectators in the courtroom, including Leslie Holland, whose complaint to the state Registry of Election Finance launched the investigation that ultimately resulted in Henry’s conviction.

“Why is she here?” Henry wanted to know.

Only because he wanted to put the case behind him, Henry said, did he agree to tender what is known as an Alford plea to three misdemeanor charges. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate accepted the plea, then sentenced Henry to a year in jail and fined him $500. But the jail time was suspended, provided Henry commits no further violations of law.

The plea allowed Henry, 56, to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that there is sufficient evidence to convict him. After the hearing however, both Henry and his attorney, Brian Butler, asserted that a jury would have acquitted Henry.

Henry said he chose not to defend himself because doing so could have cost as much as $250,000 and because he wanted to end the unfavorable publicity associated with the case.

Asked if his political career is over, Henry said: “My wife told me that we’re not available for politics.” While Henry said he regrets not being elected governor, he added that he will “continue to do public service.”

Butler said he had advised Henry not to accept the plea agreement, because “no 12 people in the state would have convicted him. These were technical violations, things they would never have been able to prove.”

Butler also noted that prosecutors initially decided to charge Henry with three felonies, but agreed to amend the counts to misdemeanors in order to resolve them.

“That tells you all you need to know about the strength of the case,” Butler said.

Henry also contended that when Holland’s complaint was filed with the registry and with the attorney general’s office, Stumbo should have delayed a possible prosecution until the registry had finished its administrative proceedings.

Instead, the attorney general’s office appointed a special prosecutor, James Crawford, the commonwealth’s attorney for Grant, Carroll and Owen counties, whose investigation concluded with the criminal charges resolved Tuesday.

Crawford was not within earshot when Henry and Butler savaged the case. But when informed of their remarks, Crawford responded in equally strong terms.

“I don’t know what kind of doctor Steve Henry is, but I know he’s not a lawyer. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Crawford said.

“If he’s the innocent person he says he is, why did he stand up there and accept a conviction? If he doesn’t believe we had the evidence, why did he agree to a plea bargain? He knows we could prove this case.”

Crawford also said he personally interviewed Henry twice about the allegations, and “he didn’t have answers that satisfied me.”

He also characterized as “ridiculous” Henry’s assertion that the investigation cost $900,000. Crawford noted that he and two state police detectives did virtually all of the investigation and none of them received any funds beyond their regular state salaries.

And he said state law specifically gives the Registry of Election Finance and prosecutors concurrent jurisdiction over election-law violations, so there was no reason for him to await the registry’s completion of its work.

Crawford conceded that the state police detectives who worked on the case were reluctant to let Henry resolve it with misdemeanor charges and a plea that did not admit guilt.

“But it doesn’t matter what he (Henry) calls it,” Crawford said. “The legal effect is still the same: a criminal conviction. Even when a jury returns a guilty verdict, the defendant can say he’s innocent. Whether it’s an Alford plea or a guilty plea, there’s still a finding of guilt by the court.”

As for settling the case with misdemeanor rather than felony charges, Crawford said, “the important thing is a conviction and a public understanding that this type of conduct cannot be condoned.” He also noted that even if a jury had convicted Henry of the more serious offenses, there was no guarantee that he would have been imprisoned.

Informed of Henry’s remarks about the alleged political overtones of the investigation, Stumbo — now the speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives — issued a statement Tuesday night that said:

“Dr. Henry’s personal comments about my involvement with his case are both inaccurate and unfortunate. When this matter was brought to my attention as Attorney General, I immediately withdrew from the investigation because of a conflict of interest. An independent prosecution was chosen under the adopted protocol of the office which I did not participate in.

“The final outcome and resulting plea agreement is proof positive that the investigation was warranted. It is unfortunate that Dr. Henry still continues to point fingers, and cast blame, rather than taking responsibility for his personal conduct.”

Henry finished a distant third in the May 2007 Democratic primary election, behind Steve Beshear, who was elected governor the following November, and businessman Bruce Lunsford. In addition to serving two terms as Paul Patton’s lieutenant governor, Henry also was a Jefferson Fiscal Court commissioner in the early 1990s.

The complaint by Holland, a former Henry campaign worker, was filed in March 2007 and accused Henry of misusing a federal fund-raising account that he said was established to explore a possible 2008 race for the U.S. Senate. Kentucky law does not allow for exploratory committees in state races.

Holland, also contended that Henry accepted corporate contributions, which is prohibited by federal and state law.

Following a 32-month investigation that included a separate $10,000 civil settlement by Henry with the Registry of Election Finance, Henry was charged by Crawford with attempting to knowingly accept and/or make contributions in support of his candidacy for governor in 2007, using the federal campaign account.

He also was accused of attempting to knowingly make and/or receive contributions in connection with the governor’s race other than through a duly appointed campaign manager, treasurer or a registered committee; and of attempting to knowingly accept corporate contributions during his campaign for governor.

Along with the plea agreement, a “summary of facts” in support of the three criminal charges was presented to the court on Tuesday.

The summary includes the assertion that Henry reimbursed himself in the amount of $1,391 from his federal “testing the waters” account after he announced his candidacy for governor; that he paid two campaign workers, Jacob “Jake” Payne and Holland, a total of nearly $10,000 from the federal campaign account, also after his announcement for governor; and that he donated three computers owned by the federal account and valued at $2,340, to the state race.

The statement of facts also asserts that Henry instructed a Warren County couple, Bruce and Julie Barrick, to give him two $1,000 checks on Nov. 22, 2006, but post-dated to Dec. 19, 2006, and with the “pay to order” section left blank; that he allowed someone to buy lunch for him and political supporters at a Bowling Green restaurant in November 2006, at a cost of $109.43; and that he paid a campaign worker $1,000 from his personal funds in January 2007 but was never reimbursed.

The Barricks have donated nearly $20,000 to a variety of state and local candidates since 1998, Kentucky campaign-finance records show. Those donations included $1,000 by Bruce Barrick, a Bowling Green insurance executive, to Henry in 2002, and another $1,000 in February 2007; and a $1,000 contribution by Julie Barrick to Henry in February 2007. The 2006 contributions described in the prosecutors’ statement of facts are not listed in the state campaign-finance records.

Reached at the couple’s Bowling Green home on Monday, Julie Barrick declined to comment and referred questions to her husband. “I don’t know any details,” she said. Bruce Barrick did not respond to telephone messages left with his wife and at his insurance-company office.

The statement of facts also describes an $85 payment to a campaign worker for stamps he had purchased, with the reimbursement funds coming from the nonprofit Heather French Foundation for Veterans Inc. The foundation also paid for a cell phone Henry used for a three-month period during his campaign in late 2006 and early 2007, according to the statement of facts.

According to the foundation’s Web site, it was founded by Henry’s wife, former Miss America Heather French, and is “organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes” with the intent of helping veterans.

Payne, the campaign worker, also was paid a total of $678 with funds from the Kentucky Prostate Cancer Coalition Inc. for work on Henry’s 2007 race for governor, according to the statement of facts. Henry is a prostate cancer survivor, and the founder and president of the coalition.

Editor's note: the nes article appeared here.