KY official who sold drugs while running for office sentenced to federal prison
A Kentucky county official who sold pain pills while running for reelection has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
Former Knox County Magistrate Jerry “Rabbit” Cox will also be on home incarceration for six months after getting out of prison.
Cox had sought probation, but U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom denied that request, saying Cox had helped feed drug addiction and damaged his community by selling pills.
“That’s just a plague to our communities,” Boom said of diverting drugs called opioids for illegal sales.
Cox, 71, was running for re-election as magistrate in the 2018 Republican primary when he sold oxycodone and hydrocodone to an undercover informant who was helping police.
A grand jury indicted Cox on six counts of selling drugs in the weeks before the election.
He pleaded guilty on two charges, admitting he sold 10 pills to the informant in one deal and 38 in another.
The first sale was at Cox’s home in Flat Lick and the second was at his business, a used car lot.
Cox won the nomination but lost the general election in 2018 and was indicted later.
The potential sentence for Cox under advisory guidelines was 30 to 37 months.
However, his attorney, David S. Hoskins, asked Boom to place Cox on probation with six months home detention, citing factors including his lack of criminal history, health problems, his life of hard work as a coal miner and in other jobs, and his efforts to help others.
“He is far from the typical person who finds himself in this situation,” Hoskins said.
Cox has been in jail since last October after his guilty plea, so has served more than four months.
Hoskins called witnesses who said Cox had helped people in his community, been active in his church and provided his own equipment to clear snow and improve rural roads.
Cox worked alongside members of the road crew when he was a magistrate, even though that was not part of the job, and offered to give his salary as magistrate back to the county to help with finances, witnesses said.
After a flood at Kayjay, Cox rounded up loads of shoes to donate to residents and worked long hours to clean up debris.
“He’s a very caring person,” Knox County road department employee Timothy Burton testified.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason D. Parman said it was commendable that Cox had worked hard all his life, raised productive children and served his community.
But he also let down that community by contributing to drug diversion that has caused a scourge of abuse, addiction and death, Parman said.
“The fabric of that very community is torn apart by opiate addiction,” he said.
Cox wasn’t a small dealer, Parman said, selling significant quantities of pills to the informant six times in a short period.
One deal involved more than 60 pills, Parman said.
Boom said she sentenced Cox to less than the minimum outlined under the sentencing guidelines for a number of reasons, including his history, his health, his age and the fact that he has a 2-year-old son.
