Former State Sen. David Burkette (D-Montgomery) officially entered a guilty plea on Monday on charges that he violated state campaign finance laws. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.
Burkette admitted taking $3,625 in donations his campaign for Montgomery City Council raised and depositing it into his personal accounts. The criminal behavior occurred between the spring of 2015 and January 2016.
“Personally profiting from campaign funds erodes public confidence in the system and will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a release announcing the conviction.
The offense to which Burkette pleaded guilty is classified by the State as a Class A misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail with a fine of $6,000. Conviction of a misdemeanor does not legally necessitate expulsion from state office.
Burkette struck a deal with prosecutors in August, where he agreed to resign from the position he then held in the Alabama State Senate in return for leniency from prosecutors.
He will have to pay court costs in addition to his fine. Burkette was first elected to the Montgomery City Council in 2007 and served in that capacity until 2018, when he won a special election to represent Alabama Senate District 26.
The former official suffered a stroke during his time as a legislator and is now mostly confined to a wheelchair.
Marshall praised Assistant Attorneys General Jasper Roberts and Kyle Beckman as well as special agents of the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work in securing the conviction on Monday.
As previously reported by Yellowhammer News, the Democratic primary to replace Burkette looks to be highly competitive. The primary date for that race is Tuesday, November 17.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
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