Thomas Esposito
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Thomas Esposito (b. 1952) is a former lawyer, Democratic politician, and four-term mayor of Logan, West Virginia, Espostio pled guilty to corruption charges for bribing a Logan County, West Virginia magistrate.
In 2003, Esposito pled guilty to paying a $6,500 bar tab of the county magistrate and then subsequently paying him to not speak about the arrangement. However, the magistrate was also later indicted on an extortion charge and the arrangement came to light.
Esposito agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges and as part of his plea agreement, he would help the FBI track down electoral corruption. In 2004, Esposito (who had not yet been sentenced) entered the democratic primary race for a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates as part of a sting operation. During the campaign, the FBI discovered and charged several others with offenses related to vote rigging and bribery, including the Sheriff of Logan County and the police chief of the city of Logan. (They have both since pled guilty.) A third person has also been charged in accepting money for votes. Prior to the election day, Esposito withdrew from the race.
Although this tactic has been seen as controversial (in effect, corrupting an electorial process to find corruption in an electorial process), a judge in December 2005 refused to throw out the charges.
Esposito was scheduled to be sentenced for his initial corruption charges in January 2006.
