A Madisonville lawmaker has filed a countersuit regarding allegations he misused $31,000 of his company’s money to fund campaign activities.
Rep. Ben Waide is the president of Liberty Rehabilitation. His fellow shareholders Lawrence Holmes and Jason Myers charged Waide with using company money to pay for travel and other expenses while pocketing his legislative reimbursement.
Waide’s attorney Todd P’Pool said releasing private information such as the lawmaker’s credit card number, which the plaintiffs did in this case, is a privacy violation.
“Their complaint talks about a Liberty Rehab credit card being used, and a Liberty Rehab credit card does not exist,” he said. “And it’s absolutely proper to have a company reimburse someone’s private credit card. In fact, it’s advisable for tax reasons.”
P’Pool called the allegations against Waide “political theater.”
“They’re trying to use campaign finance allegations as leverage in a civil lawsuit,” he said. “We anticipate the court to dismiss those campaign finance violations because it’s not proper to have that in a Hopkins County Circuit Court.”
P’Pool said Waide has contacted the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and invited them to look over his campaign reports in addition to those for Liberty Rehabilitation.
