#joe barrows

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Barrows Lectures on Need to Recuse

           Barrows, who ignored his own conflict of interest—investigating KACo’s lavish spending when he was a recipient of some of that spending—was less forgiving with others:

(“Lawyer Has Interest in KACo Program,” Daily News (Bowling Green, KY), February 16, 1995.)

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Barrows & The Program Review and Investigations Committee Investigation of KACo

          From his 2006 interview with the Nunn Center, we know that Barrows allowed his meals at Flynn’s to be billed to the tab a lobbyist made available for legislators.  In the interview, Barrows feigns ignorance at knowing who maintained the account to pay for meals at Flynn’s.

         However, Barrows knew who ran that tab because Barrows served on the Program Review and Investigations Committee when it looked into KACo.  [Note: Bob Babbage was also a recipient of KACo’s “generosity.”]

(Bill Straub, “Counties group under scrutiny,” The Kentucky Post, January 11, 1994.)

         Barrows and his fellow self-serving legislators did the Old Frankfort Shuffle, scolding KACo for their unethical behavior—ignoring the fact that it was just as unethical for legislators to accept KACo’s gifts—and lamenting the absence of laws that would allow them to punish KACo—laws they as legislators should have passed years earlier:

(Charles Wolfe, “County Loan Program’s Spending Called Lavish,” Lexington Herald-Leader, January 11, 1994.)

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Barrows and Downey

          Barrows did not recuse himself as an LRC member regarding complaints filed by LRC workers against Barrows’ good friend Kent Downey—and he was serving as one of Downey’s attorneys:

FRANKFORT - A lawmaker is giving legal advice to a former legislative staffer who pleaded guilty to prostitution and gambling charges - and that’s making other staffers who testified in the federal case uncomfortable.

For the past year, state Rep. Joe Barrows has served as a legal adviser for former legislative staffer Kent Downey, who pleaded guilty last week.

Barrows is one of 16 lawmakers who make up the Legislative Research Commission. Downey worked at the LRC until he was fired last year.

Three LRC employees complained last week that staff supervisors brushed off their allegations in April 1996 that Downey sexually harassed women, put exotic dancers on the payroll and allowed drinking and partying on the job.

Barrows, as Democratic whip, oversees the three LRC staffers who complained about Downey to supervisors and who testified to a federal grand jury.

“He’s our employer and he’s helping out Kent Downey, who we are testifying against,” said LRC attorney Greg Freedman.

Barrows, a Democrat from Versailles, said last week he remains an attorney for Downey. He refused to comment on allegations of a conflict.

(“Barrows’ Link to Downey Criticized,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 15, 1997.)

         Investigators were looking into Downey and Barrows.  Someone used Downey’s phone in the LRC to call beer distributors who made campaign contributions to Barrows and to call Dale Emmons, Barrows’ campaign consultant, several times.  Unfortunately, no one could remember anyone calling them…

FRANKFORT - Campaign-related telephone calls appear to have been made from the office of then-legislative aide Kent Downey on behalf of a friend of his, Rep. Joe Barrows.

A review of telephone records showed that on the eve of a Barrows’ fund-raising event—a golf tournament in Nicholasville on Aug. 20—long-distance phone calls were made from Downey’s office to four beer distributors.

Three of them attended the event the next day and donated to Barrows’ campaign.

As a state employee, Downey was prohibited from using his office for political activity.

Downey’s attorney, John L. Smith, said his client is certain he did not make the calls.

Barrows, a Versailles Democrat who defeated Republican Joe Walters in last month’s election, said Wednesday that he knew nothing about the calls.

“I’m not aware of the nature of those calls, of who made them, or the purpose of them,” he said.

Barrows said he was “confident” that Downey, also a Versailles resident, had not done any campaigning for him on state time.

AND

Although the calls were made from Downey’s office phone, none of the three beer distributors who gave to Barrows recalls speaking to Downey about the event or their donations.

The event - at the Champions Golf Course in Nicholasville - was organized by Anthony Gaughan, president of the Kentucky Beer Wholesalers Association and the vice president of Kentucky Eagle Beer Distributing Co. in Lexington. His company’s office was one of those called from Downey’s phone Aug. 19.

In an interview, Gaughan said there was no reason why Downey would have made phone calls concerning the event. “That is strange. I can’t explain it,” Gaughan said. “... I don’t know who would have occasion to be calling there.”

Another of the calls from Downey’s office was to Clark Distributing Co. in Bardstown. Dennis George, the company’s sales manager, donated $400 at the event.

George, in an interview Wednesday, declined to say if he attended the event. But he said he didn’t recall getting a phone call from Downey.

A third call from Downey’s phone was placed to Mid-State Distributing Co. Inc. in Lexington. The company’s president, Mickey Tweed, said he was sure he didn’t talk to Downey before the fund-raising event. Tweed supplied beer for the event and later contributed $300 to Barrows’ campaign.

Tweed and George both said that they heard of the event through Gaughan.

In all, 10 beer distributors donated a total of $3,300 to Barrows’ campaign - all but $200 of it at the Aug. 20 fund-raiser. An additional $400 was given by the Wholesale Liquor Dealers political action committee on Aug. 26. Barrows serves on the Licensing and Occupations Committee in the House, which has jurisdiction over alcoholic-beverage matters.

(“Campaign Calls Apparently Made for Barrows from Downey Office,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 13, 1996.)

FRANKFORT - A campaign consultant for House Majority Whip Joe Barrows testified yesterday before a state grand jury investigating whether lawmakers used legislative staff for illegal campaign work.

Dale Emmons, who owns Emmons and Co. Inc., in Richmond, testified for about 20 minutes behind closed doors at the Franklin County Court House. His attorney, William E. Johnson of Frankfort, said Emmons answered all the jury’s questions.

AND

News reports from 1996 showed that Downey’s Capitol phone was used to call Emmons and Co. five times between February and September. The company ran a phone bank for Barrows’ campaign and was paid $6,000 for doing so, according to Barrows’ campaign reports.

Emmons said in 1996 that none of his conversations with Downey involved Barrows’ campaign. Emmons said he was a friend of Downey and occasionally talked to him about politics.

(Jack Brammer, "Grand Jury Hears Barrows Campaign Consultant," Lexington Herald-Leader, July 31, 1998.)

In 1998, the Legislative Ethics Commission chided Barrows because of legislative aides who did campaign work for him on state time. Barrows denied knowing of the improper campaign work, and the ethics commission did not dispute that, but it said Barrows should have been more careful.

The aides worked under the direction of Barrows’ longtime friend Kent Downey, also of Versailles, a top House aide who pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and gambling. It was part of a scandal in which Downey put strip-club employees on the state payroll and used his legislative office to arrange golf outings featuring nude dancers.

Barrows provided legal counsel to Downey during the investigation. In a 1998 report, the ethics commission said Barrows “would have been better served if he had withdrawn from the case.”

(John Cheves, “Former Democratic whip at Homeland Security,” Herald-Leader, July 24, 2009.)