(LEX 18) — The testimony in the federal trial of former commonwealth’s attorney Ronnie Goldy came to a close Thursday with testimony from Goldy himself.
Goldy is facing six counts of honest service wire fraud, six counts of violating the "Travel Act," and two counts of federal program bribery.
He is accused of doing legal favors for a criminal defendant named Misty Helton in exchange for nude photos and videos of her. The allegations came to light after another attorney released hundreds of screenshots of alleged Facebook messages between Helton and Goldy.
Goldy has repeatedly denied that he abused his office and told jurors Thursday that he never requested explicit photos or videos from Helton.
Instead, Goldy said that the messages that show him asking for video were referring to an alleged video he said Helton claimed to have showing someone else involved in illegal drug activity.
During cross examination federal prosecutor Andy Boone pressed Goldy on several messages between the two, including a series of messages where Goldy repeatedly asked Helton to send him video.
In the messages, Goldy said “don’t leave me hanging … you’re killing me,” and “well get your a** home. The anticipation of what u said was better than the other may or may not be killing me. Lol.”
Boone also showed jurors a message exchange in which, right after Helton sent nude photos, Goldy said, “Wow. Nice. I do have most of those I think. But they are very nice … I’m sure you have some even better.”
Goldy denied this was a request for more photos, but rather a statement. He also said that his response to the video was not the smartest thing he’s ever said.
Goldy also said he’d never told anyone that Helton was working as a confidential informant, despite testimony from multiple court officials this week that he had told them that.
When asked about a message shown to the jury earlier in the day in which Goldy asked Judge William Lane to get Helton out of jail because she was “working with police,” Goldy countered that he did not say she was a confidential informant and indicated that he was waiting to see what the video she allegedly had showed.
During Lane’s testimony Thursday, he told jurors that he agreed to change Helton's bond in that case to an unsecured bond, meaning that she could get out of jail without paying anything. He said he did this because of Goldy's statement about Helton working with police, presumably as a confidential informant. Lane called it a "trust thing."
During her testimony Wednesday, Helton said she has never worked with police as an informant in any way.
FBI special agent Chelsea Holliday testified Thursday that during her investigation, she checked with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and none of them had ever had Helton work with them as an informant.
Holliday also walked jurors through how records she obtained from Facebook were able to verify the Facebook messages at the center of the investigation were between Goldy's account and Helton's account.
Both the prosecutors and defense are expected to give their closing arguments Friday, then the jury will deliberate.
