Why legal experts say Matt Bevin could face criminal charges for his controversial pardons

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Criminal defense lawyers say former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin could be charged under several federal laws if prosecutors are able to prove he granted a pardon to a convicted killer in exchange for campaign donations. 

Getting a conviction, however, would likely be a much tougher challenge. 

The Courier Journal reported Tuesday that a federal prosecutor and an FBI task force officer said last week during a detention hearing for pardoned felon Patrick Baker that the FBI and the U.S. attorneys office for the Eastern District are conducting an active investigation of a fundraiser Baker's family held for Bevin. 

Bevin pardoned Baker on a charge of reckless homicide in 2019 after Baker’s brother and sister-in-law hosted a fundraiser at their Corbin, Kentucky, home that raised $21,500 to retire Bevin’s campaign debt. 

Bevin adamantly denied he pardoned Baker on account of the gift, but the disclosures in court show federal prosecutors are exploring that possibility. 

Criminal defense attorneys, including former federal prosecutors Kent Wicker and Brian Butler, say if there was a quid pro quo, Bevin could be prosecuted for violating a federal bribery statute or for a violation of the Hobbs Act, which makes it illegal to interfere with interstate commerce.   

Frankfort attorneys William Johnson and Guthrie True said Bevin also could face prosecution for mail or wire fraud for denying the public honest services. 

But True said that would be a “heavy lift” and he seriously doubts there is credible evidence to support such a theory.

Butler said proving "specific intent for a quid pro quo would be exceedingly difficult” without recorded phone calls or electronic messages. And he said he doubts such evidence exists — if it did, Bevin would already have been charged. 

“I seriously doubt that charges are ever brought against former Gov. Bevin,” Butler said. 

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Former federal prosecutor Laurie Levinson, a professor at Loyola Marymount University, said Bevin could be prosecuted for extortion under the Hobbs Act if he made it clear “directly or indirectly” that the donations he received were needed for the pardon. 

But she said it would be “imperative that he knew the payments were being made and for what purpose.” 

The Lexington Herald Leader reported Monday that Baker’s ex-girlfriend, Dawn Turner, told FBI task force officer Mark Mefford in a December interview she believed the purpose of the Corbin fundraiser was to influence Bevin to give Baker a pardon. The fundraiser was “crucial” in getting it, she told agents. 

She also said she thought Baker’s parents wanted her at the fundraiser so Bevin would see her autistic son and it would make him more sympathetic to letting Baker out of prison, according to the Herald Leader story, which also reported she said Baker’s mother gave her $500 to contribute at the event. 

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The Courier Journal, which first disclosed the fundraiser, also reported that its hosts, Eric and Kathryn Baker, donated $4,000 to Bevin's campaign account on the day of the event. They had never previously donated to any other political candidate in Kentucky. 

The Courier Journal also quoted Trent Knuckles, then publisher of The News Journal in Corbin, saying he attended the fundraiser and saw Bevin go in a private room with the family.

Knuckles said Wednesday the FBI has not interviewed him. 

The Justice Department’s manual for prosecutors says while the Hobbs Act was enacted in 1946 to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes, the extortion statute is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption. 

A state court jury in 2017 convicted Baker, now 43, of reckless homicide in the death of a Knox County drug dealer shot in the chest during an attempt to rob him of money and pain pills, and a judge ordered him to serve 19 years in prison. 

Two years later, Bevin commuted the sentence and pardoned him. Bevin said the evidence against Baker was “sketchy at best,” but the Kentucky Court of Appeals in an opinion called it overwhelming.

The Courier Journal’s own review found there was ample evidence to support a conviction. 

On May 27, a federal grand jury indicted Baker on charges of using a firearm to cause the death of Donald Mills during a drug-trafficking offense, a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. The crime is punishable by death. 

Baker has pleaded not guilty, and a judge is deciding whether he should be detained pending trial. 

The nation’s biggest pardon-selling scandal unfolded in Tennessee, when Gov. Ray Blanton, near the end of his term in 1979, issued pardons to 52 prisoners, including 20 convicted murderers. One went to the son of a supporter who had been convicted of killing his ex-wife and a male companion.

While Blanton claimed he ordered the inmates freed to comply with a court order to reduce the state's prison population, the FBI and the chairperson of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, Marie Ragghianti, suspected bribery and refused to release the prisoners. 

Blanton fired her, and her story was made into a book, “Marie: A True Story," by Peter Mass, author of “Serpico,” and eventually a movie, “Marie,” starring Sissy Spacek as Ragghianti. 

Although never formally charged with selling pardons, Blanton eventually was indicted on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and extortion for selling liquor licenses.

He was convicted and served 22 months in prison.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.