Phil LeVota Federal Indictment Jackson County
federal indictment lands on jackson county missouri interim executive phil levota with 5 counts including service fraud, alleged bribery, and false statements to law enforcement. prosecutors say levota tried to bribe duran mcgee, the district's legislative representative, to drop out of the county executive race in exchange for a parks and rec director job plus $65,000 salary. anchors chris ketz and kelly eckerman covered the story on kmbc 9 while beth carlson reported live from outside the jackson county courthouse downtown following the grand jury proceeding.
Transcript (en)
evening. He's facing federal bribery charges after being indicted by a grand jury. Good evening, everybody. I'm Chris Ketz. And I'm Kelly Uckerman. Laura has the night off. This is just the latest bombshell to hit a county government already facing a string of corruption allegations. KMBC 9's Beth Carlson is live now outside the Jackson County Courthouse downtown. Beth, what is the indictment alleging? How is LaVota responding? the case. And what's the case? What's the case? What's the case? What's happening? Well, Kelly, Chris, the federal officials indicted Lovota on five charges, and those include service fraud, alleged bribery and making a false statement to law enforcement that indictment claims that Lovota offered up a government position and salary in exchange for a candidate to drop out of the 2026 County executive race. So this afternoon, Lovota the district for the legislature. The district for the legislature, the district for the legislature here in Jackson County, Duran McGee. Now the indictment claims that La Vota negotiated for this candidate to receive a position as the Jackson County director of Parks and Rec and a $65,000 salary in exchange. The individual claims La Vota wanted them to drop out of the Jackson County executive race. These conversations allegedly
