Pikeville
A U.S. District judge sentenced former state Rep. W. Keith Hall, a Democrat from Pikeville, to two years in prison Thursday for one count of aggravated identity theft.
The former lawmaker is already serving a 7-year sentence stemming from a separate bribery case, and must complete that sentence before serving the 2-year term issued Thursday.
Hall entered a guilty plea in February after being charged last year with three counts of wire fraud, two counts of identity theft and one count of lying to the FBI.
Under his deal with prosecutors, Hall pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft and got the five other charges dismissed. The most serious of those charges could have landed him a 20-year sentence.
In 2015, Hall was convicted of bribing a state mine inspector to overlook violations at surface coal mines that he owned.
Hall appealed that conviction on several grounds, including that U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell erred by not declaring a mistrial when Hall's estranged wife testified he had used the term "consulting fees" to refer to kickbacks.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Caldwell did not commit errors at Hall's trial and upheld his conviction. Caldwell is the same judge who issued the sentencing Thursday.
The new case involves a Pike County company called S&H Chemical Co. LLC, which supplied chemicals and water-treatment products to coal companies. The company's owners were listed in the indictment as S.H. and J.H., with J.H. identified as Hall's son, according to the indictment.
Hall owned coal companies that operated in conjunction with S&H Chemical, and Hall "generally oversaw" the operation of S&H, the indictment said.
B&W Resources, a London mining company that bought chemicals from S&H, required vendors to show proof that they had valid liability and workers compensation insurance, the indictment said.
When B&W requested proof of insurance from S&H in April 2015, Hall cooked up a scheme to fool the company by submitting falsified documents, according to the indictment.
Hall allegedly gave B&W at least four fake certificates showing that S&H had insurance.
Those offenses were committed while Hall was awaiting trail and sentencing in the 2015 case, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.
"Hall admitted that he caused the fake documents to be created and that they bore the the forged name of an insurance executive," the release said.
Federal law mandates Hall serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence.
After he finishes the prison term, Hall will be on probation for three years, which will run concurrently with his supervised release in the other case, according to the news release.
Will Wright is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Reach him at 859-270-9760, @HLWright
This story was originally published May 24, 2018 5:05 PM.