Former Kentucky city council member gets prison time in human-trafficking case
A former city council member who conspired to sell drugs and prostitute vulnerable addicts in several Kentucky counties has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in federal prison.
The sentence for Logan Towery, 74, included a $10,000 fine and a $5,000 payment to a fund to help human-trafficking victims.
Towery, who was once a city council member in Berea, also forfeited $71,451 to the government, as well as his interest in 12 guns and a house and small lot in London, where Towery lived when he was arrested in October 2019, according to court records.
Towery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking between September 2015 and October 2019 in Whitley, Knox, Laurel, Rockcastle, Madison, and Fayette counties; conspiracy to distribute the pain drugs oxycodone and oxymorphone; and possession of a gun in connection with a drug crime.
Towery got pain pills from a supplier in Detroit and Lexington, buying as many as 300 to 550 a week at one point in 2019 and then re-selling them in Laurel, Whitley, Knox and Madison counties, according to his plea agreement.
He also admitted using drugs to entice and coerce female addicts to have sex with him and to take part in his prostitution business.
Towery often gave women pain drugs until they were addicted, then turned them to prostitution with his male customers to pay off their drug debts and keep getting pills, according to his plea agreement.
He also threatened them into performing sexual acts by withholding the drugs they needed to keep from getting sick.
“Often the victims who were required to perform sexual favors for controlled substances showed physical and mental symptoms of withdrawal” and Towery “knew the victims would become physically ill and emotionally distressed if they did not obtain controlled substances,” according to his plea deal.
Towery advertised his prostitution business on a website until authorities shut it down, and then used Facebook, arranging for young women to meet men at hotels and providing transportation for them, according to information in an affidavit from Todd E. Tremaine, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Several other people were charged with Towery, including former Lexington accountant Mark Milslagle.
Milslagle pleaded guilty to taking part in the human-trafficking conspiracy but has not been sentenced.
Towery’s attorney, Samuel B. Castle Jr., said in a sentencing memorandum that Towery served in the infantry in the Vietnam War, spent 20 years in the US. Army Reserves and operated businesses in London and Corbin.
Castle also filed a letter confirming Towery served several terms as a Berea city council member in the 1980s at a time of significant growth in the city.
However, Towery ultimately “veered off the path” and succumbed to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Castle said.
U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom sentenced Towery Dec. 7 in federal court in London.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 10:02 AM.
