Published: October 14, 2009 11:02 pm      

Brent Rinehart pleads guilty in campaign case

OKLAHOMA CITY — A former Oklahoma County commissioner criticized for a campaign comic book that lampooned gays and his political opponents pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in an illegal campaign contribution scheme.

Brent Rinehart, 45, entered the plea in Oklahoma County to one misdemeanor count of receiving illegal campaign contributions as part of a deal to end the state's criminal case against him. His three-year sentence was deferred and he was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Rinehart and political consultant Tim Pope, originally charged in 2007, had faced felony charges of conspiracy, money laundering and perjury in connection with an alleged plan to move illegal campaign contributions through Pope's political action committee to Rinehart's 2004 race for county commissioner, according to Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

Pope and three campaign donors previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

"God says he will repay me double for any unfair treatment that I endure," Rinehart said Wednesday. "This chapter is closed and it's time to press forward."

Rinehart, an Oklahoma City councilman who was elected county commissioner in 2004, finished third in a three-way Republican primary in July 2008, effectively ending his political career.

The primary came a few weeks after he came under fire for mailing a 16-page cartoon book as part of his re-election campaign that made fun of gays and criticized his political opponents. The crudely drawn book featured an angel who supports Rinehart, and Satan, who supports his critics. It also included a gay man in a toga chasing a Boy Scout.

Keith Gaddie, a University of Oklahoma political science professor, called the book "one of the strangest things" he'd ever seen.

Rinehart's attorney, Marna Franklin, said a deferred sentence for one misdemeanor is a far cry from the seven felonies and three misdemeanors Rinehart initially faced, and that he is looking forward to moving on with his life.

"Today Mr. Rinehart was able to resolve this and walk out of the case without a single conviction," Franklin said. "While Mr. Rinehart is not completely vindicated, it can surely be said that if the office of the attorney general possessed sufficient evidence to support the numerous criminal acts as alleged, they surely had the opportunity to proceed to trial."

Edmondson's spokesman, Charlie Price, said the state was concerned primarily that Rinehart acknowledged his role in the scheme and that the plea agreement was not because of a lack of evidence.

"The important thing is that Rinehart has pleaded guilty to accepting illegal campaign contributions," Price said. "As far as the state was concerned, that was adequate to settle our concerns."