Busted in Booneville

Owsley County in eastern Kentucky is one of the nation's poorest. Its 5,023 people scrape by on a per capita income of $500 a year, mostly from tobacco or moonshining. Unemployment runs at 24%. No trains or buses stop in Booneville, the county seat, and the people are largely left alone in their poverty. Then, in November, Frank Ashley of the Louisville Courier-Journal came to town.

The reporter was assigned to find out how a $50,500 federal appropriation to create jobs was being spent. Nobody argued with the need for such funds, but a few local citizens thought that County Judge Elijah Campbell, Owsley's chief administrator, had a peculiar way of parceling out the jobs. Acting on a tip, Ashley found that Judge Campbell had appointed his wife as his executive secretary at $400 a month, and his niece as secretary to the county clerk at $300 a month. Sheriff Charley Mclntosh had taken on his wife as an assistant at $227 a month, and the county clerk had engaged his wife as county planner for $800 a month.

Ashley also discovered that Sheriff Mclntosh was dealing sternly with two people who resented this largely connubial personnel policy. Bernie Scale of Booneville, source of the original tip, had drawn 30 days in jail for drunkenness. Nedra Gabbard, twice divorced, unemployed and the mother of five, was arrested for driving up a hill too slowly. Both had applied for jobs that went to officials' relatives. Mclntosh dismissed the two as ne'er-do-wells unworthy of public employment. Of Mrs. Gabbard he added: "Besides, she doesn't even have no man."

Ashley's prodding led to a statewide anti-nepotism order. But the Booneville officials retaliated: Campbell announced that the county would accept no more federal employment funds, and Mclntosh busted Ashley on the charge he had falsely identified himself as a lawyer when he interviewed Scale in jail.

Arraigned before Judge Campbell in Booneville's local self-service laundry, Ashley denied the accusation and was released on bond. Subsequently, under pressure from the state, the judge agreed to comply with the anti-nepotism order, reinstate the employment program, and review all applications for jobs previously held by officials' relatives. Further, Campbell disqualified himself from sitting in judgment on the reporter. Though the case was referred to a grand jury last week, meaning more legal skirmishing to come for Ashley, he had already won the battle in Booneville.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.