The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Lawyers want case moved





FRANKFORT

Lawyers for a former state official, a road contractor and an employee of the contractor are asking that their bid-rigging case be moved out of Frankfort.

Lawyers for the three men said in court filings Tuesday that there’s been too much negative publicity in the case. The Lexington Herald-Leader says the lawyers want the case moved to Covington, where they say there’s been limited media coverage of the story.

The attorneys for road contractor Leonard Lawson, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and Lawson employee Brian Billings have previously asked that the case against their clients be dismissed. They say the government left an unsealed affidavit by an FBI agent in the London federal courthouse. The affidavit outlined the investigation four weeks before the men were indicted in September.

Federal prosecutors have denied in court that they did anything wrong.

The men are charged in connection with an alleged scheme to rig $130 million in state road contracts.


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