Breaking News: Another Elected Official From Eastern Kentucky, Sheriff Basil Lawrence Hodge, Agrees To 151/2 Year Sentence, Plus $50,000 Restitution.

Ex-sheriff pleads guilty to office abuses
By BRETT BARROUQUERE

LONDON, Ky. (AP) -- A former eastern Kentucky sheriff has pleaded guilty to using his office to take kickbacks, distribute drugs and pay for personal expenses.

Fifty-one-year-old Basil Lawrence Hodge, who had been the sheriff in Whitley County, agreed Thursday to a 15 1/2-year federal prison sentence as part of the plea in U.S. District Court in London.

Hodge must also pay $50,000 to the federal government and an unspecified amount in restitution.

A state grand jury had indicted Hodge late last year on 18 counts of abuse of public trust and three counts of tampering with evidence related to allegations of missing funds and seized weapons.

Hodge was immediately taken into custody pending sentencing Aug. 25.

Update, 5/19: here's the plea deal, thanks to Pageone.

He lost re-election last fall after two terms in the rural county on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.