BOGALUSA, La. – Bogalusa Mayor Mack McGehee pleaded not guilty Monday in the Washington Parish Courthouse to election fraud charges.
McGehee is charged with four counts related to the 2008 Bogalusa City Marshal's election. If convicted, the four charges could total up to a year and a half in prison.
Councilman Danny Stogner, City Marshal Wayne Adams and former Councilman Thomas Kates also pleaded not guilty Monday.
Stogner told Eyewitness News back in August, he was the whistle blower and not the bad guy in the case. He said Mayor McGehee approached him about the City Marshal's race in which Wayne Adams was running as the incumbent, Thomas Kates as the challenger.
“He asked me to go speak with a candidate that was running against Mr. Adams and ask him if he would withdraw from the race," Stogner said. "I did. Mister Kates said, ‘Danny, you and I been friends for a long time, if you would like for me to withdraw from this race, I don't mind.’ I said, well, the mayor said it would be in my best interest if you'd withdraw. So he withdrew."
"When I drove him to Franklinton and he officially withdrew from the race, the mayor told me to meet him at Bogalusa Country Club,” Stogner said.
When he met with the mayor, Stogner said, "He handed me an envelope. It was sealed. He said, deliver this to Mr. Kates for me, and I did, and when I was sitting there with Mr. Kates, he opened it and said, 'man, this is money in here.'"
"I really don't think anything of that type actually happened," McGehee's attorney, Marion Farmer told Eyewitness News Monday, "and I wouldn't want to comment further about Mr. Stogner. He's got his own attorney."
"It's my understanding that if there was any payment," Stogner's attorney, Buddy Spell said Monday, "that payment was made after person had already left the race, and the election was already decided. So, no one was bribed. My understanding of the facts as they stand today, no one was bribed to drop out of any race, they were already out of the race."
Neither Stogner nor McGehee talked to reporters Monday. Stogner said back in August, "I feel like the Mayor done something wrong."
The most serious of the charges against Mayor McGehee breaks new legal ground. Attorneys said Monday, this particular law has never been tried in a Louisiana court.
"Usually you use precedence," Farmer added, "and you see what judges did in the past on matters like this, but there's nothing to really follow here, so that does make it difficult for the prosecutor, the judge and for all four defense attorneys."
Defense attorneys sai the new law also makes for plenty of legal grey area.
"We don't really feel like it's a solid case, certainly against my client, and I think, maybe against the other defendants also,” Farmer said. “It's just a very technical violation. If one, in fact, did occur, it's hyper-technical."
The most serious of the charges against McGehee is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 18.
