A former Kentucky prosecutor abused his office by doing favors for a woman facing criminal charges and in return soliciting sexually explicit videos from her, a federal court jury ruled Friday.
The jury deliberated about six and a half hours on Friday before returning the verdict against Ronnie Goldy.
The jury convicted Goldy on six wire fraud charges, six charges related to furthering the fraud and two bribery charges.
Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but Goldy’s sentence is likely to be less under advisory federal sentencing guidelines.
Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scheduled sentencing for May 24.
Goldy, 51, was commonwealth’s attorney for Rowan, Bath, Menifee and Montgomery counties from 2013 until February 2023, when he resigned while facing the potential that state lawmakers would impeach him.
A federal grand jury later charged that he did favors for Misty Helton, a woman with an extensive record of criminal charges that included receiving stolen property, theft, assault and drug trafficking.
The favors included asking a judge to release Helton from jail, pushing to get her car released after it was impounded in a criminal case, getting court dates continued for her and suggesting that another prosecutor pursue a less serious charge against her in a drug case.
In return, Goldy asked Helton to send him explicit photos and videos and had sex with her, federal authorities charged.
In one case in May 2018, for instance, after Helton asked Goldy for gas money and he sent her $25 online, he sent her a message that said “Now your turn, Lol,” and “Don’t leave me hanging.”
Helton sent Goldy eight photos in which she was nude and in sexually suggestive poses, the indictment charged.
On another occasion, Goldy told Helton he had gotten some warrants set aside for her, and he later asked her in a message, “U owe me a very good video or two,” according to the court record.
Helton testified against Goldy, saying she felt pressure to give in to his requests for explicit videos.
Goldy also testified, denying that he ever asked Helton for any sexually explicit videos.
As to the messages about videos, Goldy testified that he was referring to getting Helton to send him videos of drug trafficking.
The fraud charges against Goldy were that he deprived the state and citizens of his honest services as an elected official.
Goldy’s attorney, Michael Curtis, argued in his closing statement that Goldy did not unlawfully solicit salacious images from Helton, and that Helton’s testimony was unreliable.
“There’s plenty of reasonable doubt,” Curtis argued.
However, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boone, told jurors that Goldy subverted the law. Goldy used his office to solicit things of value — nude images and sexual gratification — in return for doing favors for Helton, and pressured and lied to other officials in order to help her, Boone said.
Boone also said the suggestive tone of Goldy’s messages to Helton indicated he was not seeking videos of drug buys.
“He used his position to use Misty Helton,” Boone told jurors. “The people who elected Ronnie Goldy deserved better than that.”
