a Laurel County grand jury

London Mayor Randall Weddle made his initial court appearance Wednesday on charges that he illegally made excess campaign contributions to political committees supporting Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection in 2023.

Weddle’s attorney, Guthrie True of Frankfort, entered a plea of not guilty on Weddle’s behalf to a four-count indictment returned by the Laurel County Grand Jury on March 31.

Laurel Circuit Judge Michael O. Caperton accepted the plea and set a hearing for July 15 on True’s motion for a change of venue from Laurel to Franklin County.

The Kentucky Lantern first raised questions about possible excess contributions by Weddle to Beshear in a story published in April of 2023. The story noted the large number of Weddle relatives, employees and business associates listed in Beshear campaign finance reports as giving the maximum amounts allowed by law to support Beshear even though the listed donors come from a Republican region and had never before made a large political contribution in Kentucky.

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Beshear initially defended the contributions. But in June of 2023 Beshear’s campaign committee and the Kentucky Democratic Party refunded $202,000 in contributions to Weddle after Weddle had told Beshear the contributions had been made on his credit card.

At the time of the contributions Kentucky law limited the amount any person could give to a candidate’s campaign to $2,000 per election and the amount a person could give to the state-regulated part of the Kentucky Democratic Party to $5,000 per year.

The March 31 indictment alleges Weddle gave $93,000 in excess contributions to these two committees. Each of the four counts in the indictment is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

Last year the matter was reviewed by the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. At that time True said that the case did not rise to the level of a crime because Weddle’s excess contributions were unintentional violations of the law. True argued that the chief fundraiser for Beshear indicated to Weddle that it was okay to forward donations of others on his personal credit card.

The Beshear campaign has said it never gave Weddle permission to do such a thing.

Attorney General Russell Coleman took over the registry’s investigation and presented the matter to the Laurel Grand Jury.

The request for change of venue says the case should not be heard in Laurel because the alleged criminal behavior by Weddle did not occur there. Weddle was on a cruise with his family in the Bahamas in the last days of 2022 when he discussed the contributions with Beshear’s fundraiser and electronically transmitted the contributions, True has argued. He said Franklin County is the proper venue.

Coleman’s office declined comment on the case later Wednesday.