Farmer Plea Deal Opens Door to Widespread Theft from Taxpayers

18 months of likely probation plus restitution and fines amounting to a fraction of what he actually stole? That's an invitation to every half-wit crook in state government to steal everything you can.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has entered into agreements with federal and state prosecutors, and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, that would resolve all charges against him, his attorney said Thursday in a news release.

If the courts and ethics commission approve, the former University of Kentucky basketball star will plead guilty to two counts and receive a sentence in federal court in the range of 21 to 27 months, Frankfort attorney J. Guthrie True said in the release.

Farmer also will agree to pay restitution and an ethics fine totaling $125,000 and will receive a concurrent one-year sentence in state court, True said.

Farmer treated his elected position like a blank check and the state employees assigned to his department like personal servants. He deserves years in a maximum security prison and millions of dollars in crippling punitive fines.

What he did was just an exaggerated version of what elected officials in Kentucky have been getting away with for two hundred and twenty-one years. Which is exactly why Farmer's punishment must be so terrifyingly severe that it will finally start detering these motherfuckers.