'Day-to-day survival,' low expectations fueled corruption in Martin County Ky

[n2doc]

BY JOHN CHEVES

INEZ — Martin County Judge-Executive Willie Kirk was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the late 1960s for stealing federal relief money intended for his citizens.

It didn't matter.

President Richard Nixon, a fellow Republican, pardoned Kirk five months after the bars clanged shut behind him. Kirk returned to Martin County, where his beautician wife had been installed as his temporary replacement, and he won re-election. At the dawn of the 1980s, Kirk continued to rule over Martin County. A half-dozen Kirk relatives had joined him on the courthouse payroll.

Graft, corruption and nepotism "made a mockery" of more than $100 million in federal anti-poverty spending in Martin County from 1964 to 1981, The New York Times wrote in an extensive profile of the county in 1981.

"By the time the money filtered through political hands in Washington, Frankfort and Inez, it sometimes turned out that little was left over for the intended recipients," the Times reported.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/11/16/2933632/day-to-day-survival.html