Rinehart Pleads Guilty in Campaign Case

Staff and Wire Reports

OKLAHOMA CITY - Former Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart has pleaded guilty to receiving illegal campaign contributions.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Rinehart pleaded guilty Wednesday in Oklahoma County District Court to one count of receiving campaign contributions in excess of $5,000.

Edmondson said Rinehart was sentenced to a 3-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Irven Box, NEWS 9's legal analyst said Rinehart got a good deal because he was able to avoid a felony conviction and prison time as well as securing unsupervised probation.

But instead of being remorseful for his actions, Reinhart took a different approach.

"Declaring victory over my enemies, I refuse to be bitter," Rinehart said.

Sounding more like a victim, Brent Rinehart was found guilty of taking illegal campaign contributions during his 2004 race for Oklahoma County commissioner. Court documents show in three separate incidents Rinehart took money from donors that exceeded the $5,000 limit a person can contribute.

The money was funneled through Rinehart's political consultant and former Oklahoma Lawmaker Tim Pope's political action committee, but instead of admitting guilt Reinhart went after others.

"Drew Edmondson, Jim Roth, John Whetzel, Lux Freedman and Leonard Sullivan and Ed Kelley and others, I forgive you for the things that you said and you've done,” Rinehart said. "God says he will repay me double for any unfair treatment I have endured."

Rinehart, political consultant Tim Pope and campaign donors Walter Pelfrey, Robert Larkin and Jerl Methvin were charged in April 2007.

They were implicated in a plan to move illegal campaign contributions through Pope's political action committee to Rinehart's 2004 race for county commissioner.

The attorney general says Pope and the three donors have previously entered pleas for their roles in the scheme.