Read the indictment here.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former member of West Virginia's House of Delegates has been indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering, gambling, obstruction and bribery charges for allegedly running illegal gambling rings in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Joe C. Ferrell is charged with bribing elected officials, including a former mayor of Logan and former Logan County sheriff, so that they would turn a blind eye to his illegal gambling enterprise, according to the 48-count indictment.
Ferrell, 62, of Chapmanville, is also accused of buying votes in Logan County during various campaigns and with bribing investigators with the West Virginia Lottery.
Ferrell became a major video machine owner in 1995, when he bought Southern Amusement Co. from the family of Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin. The company is also named in the indictment.
"Ferrell sought this position [in the House of Delegates] in order to protect the business of Southern Amusement by, among other things, influencing proposed and pending legislation regarding the operation of video lottery machines," the indictment states.
Ferrell, a Logan County Democrat who pleaded guilty in state court in 1992 to illegally funneling $58,000 in cash to campaigns in Logan, Boone and Lincoln counties, was re-elected to the Legislature in 1998.
In June 2005, federal investigators raided Southern Amusement Co.'s Logan headquarters, seizing records related to both gambling and election fraud.
In January 2006, after he was linked to a federal vote-buying probe that resulted in convictions of multiple elected officials in Southern West Virginia, Ferrell announced through his attorney that he would not seek re-election. Ferrell was entirely absent from the Legislature in 2006, reportedly for recurring back problems, but still collected his full legislative salary.
Ferrell could not be reached via a Chapmanville telephone listing under his name. A call to the lawyer who represented him in 2006 went unreturned.
In the indictment, returned last week and unsealed on Monday, federal prosecutors charge Ferrell with a host of crimes, largely centered on his alleged gambling operation. If convicted on all 48 counts, Ferrell faces hundreds of years in prison.
The indictment lists dates for 22 trips Ferrell or his associates allegedly took to collect profits from illegal gambling operations in Kentucky between January 2005 and March 2008.
Ferrell also conspired with the former mayor of Logan between 1995 and 2001, according to the indictment. The former mayor is not named, but Tom Esposito was mayor during that period.
Read the indictment here.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former member of West Virginia's House of Delegates has been indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering, gambling, obstruction and bribery charges for allegedly running illegal gambling rings in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Joe C. Ferrell is charged with bribing elected officials, including a former mayor of Logan and former Logan County sheriff, so that they would turn a blind eye to his illegal gambling enterprise, according to the 48-count indictment.
Ferrell, 62, of Chapmanville, is also accused of buying votes in Logan County during various campaigns and with bribing investigators with the West Virginia Lottery.
Ferrell became a major video machine owner in 1995, when he bought Southern Amusement Co. from the family of Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin. The company is also named in the indictment.
"Ferrell sought this position [in the House of Delegates] in order to protect the business of Southern Amusement by, among other things, influencing proposed and pending legislation regarding the operation of video lottery machines," the indictment states.
Ferrell, a Logan County Democrat who pleaded guilty in state court in 1992 to illegally funneling $58,000 in cash to campaigns in Logan, Boone and Lincoln counties, was re-elected to the Legislature in 1998.
In June 2005, federal investigators raided Southern Amusement Co.'s Logan headquarters, seizing records related to both gambling and election fraud.
In January 2006, after he was linked to a federal vote-buying probe that resulted in convictions of multiple elected officials in Southern West Virginia, Ferrell announced through his attorney that he would not seek re-election. Ferrell was entirely absent from the Legislature in 2006, reportedly for recurring back problems, but still collected his full legislative salary.
Ferrell could not be reached via a Chapmanville telephone listing under his name. A call to the lawyer who represented him in 2006 went unreturned.
In the indictment, returned last week and unsealed on Monday, federal prosecutors charge Ferrell with a host of crimes, largely centered on his alleged gambling operation. If convicted on all 48 counts, Ferrell faces hundreds of years in prison.
The indictment lists dates for 22 trips Ferrell or his associates allegedly took to collect profits from illegal gambling operations in Kentucky between January 2005 and March 2008.
Ferrell also conspired with the former mayor of Logan between 1995 and 2001, according to the indictment. The former mayor is not named, but Tom Esposito was mayor during that period.
Esposito cooperated with federal investigators during their probe of election fraud in Southern West Virginia. In 2004, the FBI planted Esposito as a sham candidate in a legislative race.
Esposito was placed on two years probation in January 2006 after pleading guilty to concealing a felony. His cooperation is credited with convictions of numerous other officials.
The former Logan mayor is described as "an unindicted co-conspirator and not as a defendant" in the indictment.
Ferrell allegedly bribed Esposito in March 1995 and March 1999. Ferrell also provided the then-mayor with trips to New Orleans in 1996 and Myrtle Beach in 2002, according to the indictment.
In 2000, Ferrell gave cash to the sheriff-elect of Logan County in exchange for a promise not to appoint a specific person as the new chief law enforcement deputy, the indictment alleges.
Johnny "Big John" Mendez, who was elected sheriff in 2000, is not named or charged in the indictment. In 2005, Mendez was placed on home confinement for conspiring to buy votes, having received leniency for cooperating with federal prosecutors.
The indictment also charges Ferrell with buying votes from at least five people between March 2000 and May 2004.
Ferrell allegedly had an investigator with the West Virginia Lottery on the payroll, whom he would pay to service Southern Amusement's machines after-hours and not report his activity to her superiors.
The investigator, who is named as "a co-schemer and aider and abettor but not as a defendant," gave Southern Amusement illegal access to the "sealed logic areas," the programming component that controls how the machines operate, according to the indictment.
Ferrell is also accused with helping an employee defraud the Social Security Administration by paying him in cash while he was collecting disability benefits. He also faces four counts of failing to collect, account for and pay employment taxes.
The investigation was a joint effort by the IRS, the FBI, West Virginia Legislature's Commission on Special Investigations, the Social Security Administration and the West Virginia State Police, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
"I commend the U.S. Attorneys Office and all members of the investigative team in reaching this important phase of the investigation," said Timothy Marsh, acting special agent in charge of IRS criminal investigations.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
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