UPDATE: Tuesday 6/23 11:30 am
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) --Former Logan County Delegate Joe C. Ferrell has been arraigned during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Huntington.

During the hearing, Ferrell pleaded not guilty to all 48-counts in the indictment. His bond was set at $50,000.

An August 24th trial date was also set.

As part of standard bond requirements, Ferrell is not to have any contact with potential witnesses. However, his attorney, Ben Bailey, asked that Ferrell be allowed to talk with co-workers, employees and customers of Southern Amusement Company, assuming some of those folks might be part of the prosecution's witness list. The magistrate granted that request, as long as they did not discuss the case.

Mr. Ferrell had no comment as he entered the courthouse for the hearing.

Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for updated information.

ORIGINAL STORY
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Monday against former Logan County Delegate Joe C. Ferrell, alleging illegal gambling, bribery and vote buying among other charges.

Ferrell served in the House of Delegates from Logan County from 1983-84, 1987-1992 and 1999-2005, according to state archives.

The 48-count indictment alleges that as the leader of Southern Amusement Co., Inc. and White Amusement Company, Ferrell participated in illegal video gambling and bribed officials to keep them from investigating his video gaming businesses from 1995 through 2008. Federal authorities allege that Ferrell used his influence in the West Virginia legislature to track legislation that would be beneficial to his company.

Charged With Bribing a Mayor

The indictment claims that Ferrell bribed former Logan County Mayor Tom Esposito with an illegal cash bribe in 1995 and 1999, both years in which Esposito was seeking re-election. Ferrell allegedly also paid for Esposito's trips to New Orleans and Myrtle Beach.

Esposito served as the mayor of Logan for sixteen years. He abruptly dropped out of a race for the House of Delegates in 2004, because he said he wanted to support his family while his mother-in-law was ill. In 2006, Esposito was sentenced to two years probation for not reporting an extortion situation to federal authorities involving a magistrate.

Charged with Bribing a Sheriff-Elect

Federal proseuctors allege that Ferrell also bribed former Logan County Sheriff John "Big John" Mendez with cash, when Mendez was sheriff-elect of the county in 2000.

Mendez served one term, but dropped out of the race for sheriff in 2004 after he was indicted by federal authorities for election fraud. Mendez pleaded guilty.

Other Charges

Ferrell is also accused of seven occasions of vote buying.

For a period of four years, Ferrell is accused of bribing an investigator with the West Virginia Lottery, in exchange for after hours service calls and her access to the sealed logic areas of the video lottery machines.

Ferrell also faces charges of mail fraud for allegedly paying someone from Wyoming County under the table for work, in order for them to keep disability benefits with the Social Security Administration. When that person was subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury in 2007, the indictment states Ferrell tried to obstruct justice by falsifying an employment contract with the individual.

The federal government is attempting to seize $5 million in property, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and the video lottery machines.

No Stranger to the Feds
In his 2006 book on political corruption in West Virginia, "Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay For a Landslide," Dr. Allen Loughry wrote that Ferrell purchased Southern Amusement from the family of Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin in 1995 for an undisclosed amount of money. That purchase took place, according to Loughry, despite Ferrell filing for bankruptcy only a few years earlier for his mining company with $31 million in debt.

Loughry noted how Ferrell pleaded guilty in 1992 to illegally spending $58,000 to buy his seat in the House of Delegates during the 1986, 88, 90 and 92 election cycles.

As part of a plea bargain with federal authorities, Ferrell signed a sworn affidavit promising to never run for office again.

"I know that it was illegal to use cash in the elections and that in doing so I participated in depriving the citizens of Logan, Boone and Lincoln counties of honest elections. I never intend to run for, or hold, public office again," wrote Ferrell in his affidavit that is quoted in the book.

Yet, Ferrell was back in 1998, saying that he changed his mind about running for office. Voters in southern West Virginia returned him to Charleston for the first of four terms and Loughry notes that no officials in law enforcement made an issue of Ferrell's return.