Turner sentenced to prison in perjury case

STAFF WRITER

The perjury case against one of nearly a dozen Pike County residents who were indicted federally for election fraud in 2003 ended this week with a prison sentence.

U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell sentenced Pikeville businessman Loren Glenn Turner, 53, in Frankfort Thursday.

Turner received a fraction of the maximum penalty (five years) that the charge of perjury holds in U.S. District Court. Caldwell sentenced him to serve six months in prison, pay $2,100 fines or fees and be supervised for three years after his release from custody.

Turner's 2005 indictment for perjury outlines the lies that he told in court regarding the 2002 Pike County judicial campaign for John Doug Hays. The indictment explains that Hays gained “tens of thousands of dollars” for his campaign from deceased Pikeville businessman Ross Harris, who “laundered a portion of his legally excessive contributions” through other persons to avert state requirements that prevents contributors from giving candidates more than $1,000.

Turner, Harris' former employee, acted as an intermediary between Harris and “straw contributors” who gave money to campaigns in excess of what state statutes allow, the indictment says. Many of the straw contributors were friends and relatives of Turner, who is a cousin of Sen. Johnny Ray Turner.

Turner testified at a 2003 grand jury hearing, telling the court that the straw contributors gave their own money, not Harris', to Hays' campaign. Turner denied giving cash to the straw contributors and said he also gave $1,000 of his own personal money to the campaign.

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed Turner's mail fraud conviction and four-year sentence - in a case related to the vote fraud in Hays' campaign - because the mail fraud statute can't be used in Kentucky to prosecute vote fraud.

Of 10 Pike County residents indicted for election fraud in 2003, Turner is the second to be sentenced to jail.

At the hearing Thursday, Caldwell denied a request from attorney, Mark D. Chandler, to allow Turner to serve his time on home incarceration.

He is scheduled to surrender to authorities to serve his sentence on April 30.