London, Ky. -The former mayor of Manchester Daugh K. White, 74, was sentenced to 84 months, former Assistant Chief of Police Richard Todd Roberts, 36, was sentenced to 87 months, former Manchester City Councilman Darnell Hipsher, 47, was sentenced to 46 months, former Manchester City Council and 911 Director Vernon Hacker, 55, was sentenced to 120 months, Tammy Napier, 36, was sentenced to 46 months, and Bobby Joe Curry, 56, was sentenced to 240 months today in United States District Court in London, Ky., after entering guilty pleas earlier this year to charges including racketeering acts involving arson, extortion, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice, as well as drug conspiracy charges.

White pleaded guilty on August 13, 2007, Hipsher pleaded guilty on August 15, 2007, and Roberts pleaded guilty on August 17, 2007, to a charge of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Hacker pleaded guilty on February 5, 2007, to one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute pills containing oxycodone and methadone. Napier pleaded guilty on September 5, 2006, to conspiring to distribute cocaine and distribution of cocaine. Curry pleaded guilty on October 2, 2006, to conspiring to distribute cocaine, oxycodone, and methadone and distribution of cocaine, oxycodone, and methadone resulting in the death of another person.

Racketeering acts alleged include arson, obstruction of justice, extortion, and mail fraud. White, Roberts, and Hipsher admitted to controlling the affairs of the city, directly and indirectly, through a pattern of illegal acts including arson, mail fraud, extortion of payments from contractors relating to city government contracts for their own financial benefit, and obstruction of justice.

Hipsher and White, aided and abetted by each other, deprived the citizens of Manchester of honest services by paving 30 private driveways to gain political favor. They also schemed to disguise the free paving with invoices to only 11 people at reduced amounts, and by mailing the invoices, committed mail fraud.

The Court also ordered:

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kentucky State Police. The United States was represented in the case by Assistant United States Attorney Stephen C. Smith.