MOONSHINER GETS PRISON FOR BRIBERY

Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992 TAG: 9201010136 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium

MOONSHINER GETS PRISON FOR BRIBERY
A Franklin County moonshiner who bribed a state liquor enforcement officer in an attempt to protect his illegal distillery was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.
Circuit Judge B.A. Davis III brushed aside pleas for leniency on behalf of Bobby Joe Whitlock, 53, of Ferrum.
"Anyone who admits to bribing a law enforcement officer has got to be punished," Davis said. "I can't see any justification for being lenient."
Whitlock was arrested in July following a six-month sting operation in which he paid $2,500 in five installments to a state Alcoholic Beverage Control agent for information about moonshine investigations.
ABC Special Agent Jimmy Beheler, whom Whitlock first contacted in December 1990, pretended to go along with the scheme in meetings and phone conversations that were secretly recorded.
Whitlock, who pleaded guilty to five bribery counts and a related moonshine-manufacturing charge, faced up to 53 years in prison.
With a 10-year sentence, Whitlock could be eligible for parole in less than two years, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.
Defense attorney Michaux "Shack" Raine portrayed his client as an honest, hard-working man who provided a good living for his wife and three children, albeit through Franklin County's infamous untaxed-whiskey trade.
"He's not a - quote - dishonest person. He's not an untrustworthy person," Raine said of Whitlock. "He just likes to be involved in the manufacture of liquor."
Whitlock's criminal record includes moonshine and marijuana convictions in federal court.
Raine said the bribes were evidence of Whitlock's industrious nature to see "his business succeed and go unnoticed."
"I would like to say this is a victimless offense," Raine said.
Hapgood replied that the integrity of the judicial system was at stake when someone tried to buy off police officers.
"To attempt to subvert that is about as bad as any crime can get," Hapgood said. "Anytime the system suffers from this type of thing, everyone suffers."
Hapgood asked Davis to send Whitlock to prison for at least 25 years as a deterrent to others who might try to corrupt the system.
"We have to say that we're not going to put up with this," he said.
Davis, who was visibly troubled by the case, recalled a childhood memory before sentencing Whitlock.
The judge said one of his earliest role models had been a law enforcement officer who worked in Franklin County. About 10 years ago, Davis said a moonshiner came to him and told him that the officer, now dead, had been on the take for years.
"It kind of destroyed an image," Davis said. "I wish he hadn't told me. It's kind of like learning there is no Santa Claus."
Davis sentenced Whitlock to 10 years - the maximum - on each bribery count, but suspended all but two years on each count. Whitlock also received three years for moonshining, to run concurrently with the bribery charges.
Davis ordered Whitlock to serve 20 years probation after his release.
Whitlock was told to report to the Franklin County Jail on Monday.
Raine asked that Whitlock be allowed to serve his sentence in the local jail. Whitlock has the potential to be a model worker in the local trusty program, he said.
Whitlock's 10-year sentence makes him eligible for the state penitentiary system, but overcrowding makes it hard to place inmates in the state system, Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. "Quint" Overton said.
"His name will go on a waiting list just like everyone else," Overton said. "But he'll be here for a while even if we can get him in the state system."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB