EKY judge found not guilty in federal fraud trial. Now he’s back on the bench
Pike County Circuit Judge Howard Keith Hall will return to the bench after a jury found him not guilty on all charges Tuesday in a weeklong federal fraud trial in Frankfort.
Hall, who was accused of stealing more than $400,000 from the government as Pike County attorney, was acquitted by a jury on two counts of mail fraud and one count of theft of government funds.
The Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission met late Tuesday night following the not-guilty verdict and unanimously voted to return Hall to the bench, making him one of two judges responsible for hearing felonies and major civil cases in Kentucky’s easternmost county.
Judge Eddy Coleman, who serves on the commission but also sits alongside Hall as chief circuit judge in Pike County, recused himself from the vote to lift Hall’s suspension, which took effect immediately.
“I’m extremely happy for Judge Hall and his family,” said Guthrie True, a founding partner at True Guarnieri Ayer in Frankfort who defended Hall against the government’s charges. “They’ve been through a great deal since the indictment was returned in April. I’m just so pleased that they have some relief from this nightmare.”
The government accused Hall of conspiring with a local attorney to work for each other and siphon government funds. Hall hired a Pikeville personal injury attorney as an assistant during his time as the county prosecutor in 2010 and allegedly paid him more than $440,000, including gross pay and benefits, despite the attorney doing almost no work for Hall’s office. Between 2011 and 2020, Hall worked in the attorney’s office and was paid $505,900, the indictment also alleged.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove denied Hall’s motion to dismiss the case in October. Hall said the accusations were groundless as Kentucky law does not set a minimum workload requirement for part-time county attorneys.
Tatenhove ruled Hall’s motion did not meet the high bar necessary for dismissal. If proven, the facts listed in the indictment would amount to federal crimes.
County attorneys handle lower-level civil and traffic violations in district court, collect delinquent property taxes, enforce child support collections and represent county legislators, but they are allowed to maintain a private practice.
The relationship Howard Keith Hall maintained with the assistant county attorney Michael Shane Hall was a “legal and appropriate private-practice arrangement,” True said after the verdict. The two attorneys are not related.
The payments Howard Keith Hall received were key to his defense, True said. He reinforced for the jury that the government had failed to prove the payments were unlawful or proceeds of fraud in any way.
True also depicted Hall’s 2020 election to the circuit judge post through a political lens. One witness during the trial described it as a “nasty election” between three local attorneys holding sway over large swaths of the electorate.
Hall served as Pike County attorney for 24 years before resigning to become circuit court judge. He was elected district court judge in 1992 when he was just 29 years old, making him one of the youngest elected judges in the state at that time.
If convicted, Hall could have faced several decades in prison, according to the indictment, but True said his client insisted on proving his innocence in court.
Eastern District federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader inquiry.
