KENTUCKY —The former 70-year-old Mayor of Martin, Ky., has been sentenced to seven years and six months in federal prison for intimidating and threatening residents to get their votes during the mayor’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Thomasine Robinson was convicted in May of the vote buying and civil rights violations.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced Robinson for conspiracy to violate civil rights, conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration, federal program fraud, aggravated identity theft and vote buying.
Thomasine Robinson was convicted in February of the identity theft and fraud offenses.
Judge Thapar also sentenced Robinson’s husband, James “Red” Robinson, 64, to three years and four months in prison for vote buying.
Under federal law, officials said the Robinsons must serve at least 85 percent of their respective prison sentences.
According to evidence at the trial, Robinson and her co-conspirators intimidated poor and disabled citizens in order to gain their votes during Robinson’s 2012 campaign for re-election.
Members of the conspiracy told residents to vote absentee ballot under the supervision of Robinson or another member of the conspiracy, officials said.
Trial testimony indicated that the conspirators completed absentee ballots, marking their choice of candidates, and instructing the voters to sign the pre-marked ballots.
Voters who complied by voting for Thomasine Robinson received promises of better living arrangements and other considerations.
Voters who did not comply faced eviction or the loss of priority for public housing. In addition, the evidence established that the defendants offered to pay several voters to vote for Thomasine Robinson, officials said.
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Evidence at the trial established that from 2006 until January 2013, Ginger Marie Halbert, a co-conspirator, was purportedly working on a volunteer basis with Thomasine Robinson; in reality, Halbert was secretly being paid with federal funds.
The funds used to pay Halbert were intended for the Martin Community Center and the Martin Housing Authority. Some of the misdirected money was supposed to fund an after school program for city children.
To conceal the scheme, the defendants allegedly arranged for the checks to be made payable to Halbert’s son.