Grand jury charges KY official and his wife in alleged scheme to overpay her $365,000
The attorney who represents Lawrence County in legal matters took part in a scheme to pay his wife more than $365,000 in bonuses, a federal grand jury has charged.
The grand jury in Lexington indicted Lawrence County Attorney Michael T. Hogan and his wife, Joy, a legal secretary in his office, on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Michael Hogan also faces nine charges of wire fraud and five charges of theft from a program supported by federal funds, meaning child support collections handled by his office.
The grand jury returned the charges June 3, but they were initially sealed. Federal authorities announced the charges Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate K. Smith requested a summons be issued for Joy Hogan to come to court, but sought an arrest warrant for Michael Hogan.
Attorneys representing Hogan, 53, and his wife were not immediately available for comment after the announcement, but Hogan denied any wrongdoing in a statement he issued after a May 2020 report by state Auditor Mike Harmon’s office identified financial issues that led to the federal investigation.
Hogan said the payments to his wife were “honest pay for honest work that clearly benefited the public in the form of compensating an exemplary employee who goes above and beyond to serve the office and the people of Lawrence County at a consistently high level.”
But the federal grand jury said Hogan and his wife, who is 41, conspired to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars to her from the county’s delinquent tax collections between March 2013 and April 2020. County attorneys in Kentucky help collect delinquent property taxes.
Hogan and his wife set up a second delinquent tax fund but used their home address and wrote scores of checks from the account to Joy Hogan, the indictment said.
Hogan falsely claimed the checks were legitimate bonuses that did not benefit him personally, the indictment said.
The couple used the money for their personal benefit, paying their mortgage, credit card bills, car loans and household expenses, and making cash withdrawals, the indictment charged.
The extra money to Joy Hogan was supposed to be used for operating expenses of the county attorney’s office, federal authorities said.
Michael Hogan also overbilled the state for work to collect child support payments, the indictment alleged.
Between July 2015 and June 2020, Hogan billed for an average of 65 hours of child support collection work a month, but worked only “a small fraction of those hours,” the indictment said.
Hogan also allegedly billed the state for work done by employees as if he had done it himself and paid employees for work at his private law firm with money he received for child support enforcement work.
Harmon issued a statement saying he wanted to recognize the work his employees had done that led to the investigation of Hogan.
“Our special examination of county attorney offices has now resulted in two federal indictments regarding improper use of public tax dollars,” Harmon said.
In the other case, a former office manager of the child support enforcement office in Boyd County, Mary E. Pickett, pleaded guilty to embezzling money. She was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay $126,313, according to a court record.
The FBI and Kentucky State Police investigated the case against Hogan.
Hogan has been Lawrence County attorney since 2003. County attorneys carry out a number of functions, including prosecuting misdemeanor crimes and traffic offenses, helping collect delinquent taxes, collecting child support and advising county fiscal courts on legal matters.
Hogan ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the May 2019 Republican primary on a ticket with state Rep. Robert Goforth.
