Posted on 05/12/2006 4:20:55 PM PDT by girl_talk1999
Appalachia Mayor Ben Cooper was jailed today after a judge increased his bond from $25,000 to $100,000.
Cooper’s attorney said she expects he will be able to post the bond, at which point he will be placed on house arrest.
The question of whether Cooper will be allowed to continue to serve as mayor was left unresolved after a hearing in Wise County Circuit Court. Circuit Court Judge Tammy McElyea – who increased Cooper’s bond after hearing evidence that he illegally possessed a gun after being convicted of a domestic-related assault – said she will decide later whether the terms of Cooper's house arrest will allow him to attend town council meetings.
Cooper has indicated he has no plans to step down, according to town attorney Michael Abbott.
Cooper is at the center of a 300-page indictment that charges widespread election fraud by town council candidates in 2004 and continued corruption in town hall following the elections.
Cooper and his supporters are charged with buying absentee votes with offers of beer, cigarettes and even pork rinds to residents of low-income neighborhoods. In some cases, mail-in ballots were stolen from the mailboxes of the intended voters and then fraudulently cast in the names of the defendants, the indictment alleges.
Authorities say Cooper was motivated by a desire to gain total control of the town - including its police department, which at his direction conducted warrantless raids on the homes of people who crossed him, according to the indictment.
Cooper has also been named in search warrants that were used last weekend to raid three suspected gambling houses run out of vacant storefronts on the town's Main Street. Special prosecutor Tim McAfee has said the gambling houses made payments to some members of town council in exchange for an agreement that local police would steer clear of their illegal operations.
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