Does video really show Judge-Executive stealing campaign sign?

An Emlyn resident claims he’s got video evidence of Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. “stealing” a campaign sign out of his yard in mid-March, but White contends that the accusations are part of a dishonest, politically motivated attack resulting from an ongoing, nasty property dispute in the area.

Rick Rickett, a resident of Little Bell Young Road, said he captured White taking the sign using a surveillance system he set up at his home following the disappearance of several other candidate campaign signs from his yard in recent days.

“I thought it was a bunch of kids that was getting my signs,” Rickett said in an interview Monday.

He said he was shocked, after viewing the video, to see White get out of a vehicle and take a sign out of his yard.

The video is making the rounds on social media.

The black and white video, posted to YouTube on March 25 under the username “lucy ricardo,” shows a man stop a vehicle in the middle of the roadway, causally walk in front of the vehicle’s headlights, then hop over a ditch and grab the sign before returning to his vehicle. He then does a turnabout in a nearby driveway and leaves.

The video is dated March 13 and time-stamped about 9:21 p.m. It isn’t clear who actually gets out of the car or which election candidate the sign belongs to.

The video, entitled “Campaign Season Whitley County Kentucky” is the only video uploaded to the “lucy ricardo” YouTube account name.

Rickett’s wife, Lisa, shared a link to the video on Facebook on March 31 but never gives any details about who is depicted or what they are doing.

In an accompanying comment on the popular social media site, she writes: “Every where i go people is talking about my candid camera man all i can say he did it to himself. I hope he got the few votes across the road that meant so much to him. He should have stayed out of my business. It was not any of his business. People is opening their eyes now. .”

She also says that the “Video speaks for itself.”

In another post on Facebook, Lisa Rickett writes: “SMILE YOU ARE ON CANDID CAMERA,” and writes later “IF YOU DONT LIKE ME IN YOUR BUSINESS YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED OUT OF MINE. BECAUSE IM NOT DONE FAR FROM DONE.”

Another Facebook user reposted the video with the following accusation: “Elected County official stealing sign out of a yard. Oh yes, he is driving a Whitley Co vehicle! This guy is also running for re-election! Need more info you can private message me.”

The same user also urges others to repost the video.

White freely admits that it’s him who is depicted in the video and that he is indeed taking a campaign sign. But he says the video most definitely does not “speak for itself,” and characterizes it as a half-truth being spread by the Ricketts maliciously in an effort to damage him politically.

“It’s obvious that they have tried to deceive people into thinking that I took somebody else’s sign when I didn’t. They knew that was not the case,” White said Tuesday.

“It’s my own sign. I think it’s an unfortunate part of the political campaign that people try to misrepresent situations into something they are not.”

White took to Facebook himself on April 1 on his official re-election page, “Pat White Judge Executive” saying:
“There is an issue a few people have asked me about and I would like to clear up the confusion. Under no circumstance did I ever take another candidate’s campaign sign, nor would I. Nonsensical stories like this are intentionally designed to deceive people and take away from the real issues facing Whitley County. Economic Development, Road Improvements, Waterline Extensions, Balanced Budgets and otherwise Serving the Public are where attention should be for the upcoming years. In May, Whitley County has a real choice to make: Who is the Most Qualified and Best candidate to serve as Judge Executive the next 4 years. Dirty tricks do not and should not win elections. Pat White, Jr. relies on being a Qualified Judge who has a Proven Record of Working Hard to Improve our Community for his re-election campaign.”

Another resident of Little Bell Young Road, Barbara Cox, confirms White’s story.

“It was his own sign that he took out of their yard,” Cox said. “He didn’t steal nobody’s else’s sign. I think what they are doing is rotten.”

Cox lives directly across the street from the Rickett family.

Rick Rickett finally admitted during Monday’s interview that White probably did actually come that night to retrieve his own campaign sign, and said he never reported the incident as a theft or provided the video to police because he didn’t think it would be taken seriously. He said he has no evidence White ever took any other signs but his own. Nevertheless, he says his wife decided to share the video online to let people know that White is a “thief.” He also said that he does not plan to vote for the incumbent Judge-Executive in the May Primary Election because he is angry with him for other reasons.

The dust up over the sign is only the latest, and by all accounts, most benign development springing from a disagreement that goes much deeper than mere politics. White said he didn’t want any of his campaign signs in the area because of a fierce property dispute between the Ricketts and the nearby Cox family, who lives across the road, that has involved shooting, alleged assault and even a case of possible arson.

Apparently, the Ricketts purchased a vacant parcel of land near the Cox’s property and have subsequently made it difficult for the Cox family to access their driveway.

Barbara Cox said the Ricketts have parked a flatbed trailer piled high with “junk” in the way of the entrance to their driveway across the easement for the roadway. The blacktop for the road ends just before the turnoff to their driveway. She said the Rickett’s also have started to erect a fence that crosses the road as well making it difficult for them to pull in.

“They are ignorant,” Barbara Cox said. “Our driveway has been there for 45 years. Why would they want to block our driveway?”
“I haven’t done anything to them,” she added. “We’ve been to court and everything else and the and they don’t understand that they can’t block our driveway. The judge can’t get it into their heads. It’s like they don’t understand English. They are just trying to be obnoxious.”

White said the situation spilled over into the courts when he went out to the road several months ago with county road engineer Jim Bates to take a look at the situation. He said the two walked right into the middle of a heated dispute between Barbara Cox’s son and Rick Rickett. The argument involved the accusation of threats with firearms.

White said he diffused the situation until police arrived. The two men were arrested, but charges against them both were dropped for lack of evidence. As part of the court proceedings, the Ricketts were told to move their trailer enough, for the time being, to allow the Cox’s access to their driveway.

Barbara Cox claims they didn’t do so. In late February or early March, she said County Attorney Bob Hammons had to come out to Little Bell Young Road personally to get the trailer moved. White said he was with Hammons at the time and confirms the story.

Rick Rickett said county officials threatened to have him arrested if he blocked the roadway. And he said he’s he’s been shot at and “knocked up against his garage” as a result of the dispute with his neighbors. There are bullet holes in the side of his garage to prove it, he says.

“It’s wild around here,” Rickett said. “It’s all over that piece of ground I bought back here. The neighbors was trying to take it but I bought it. It’s mine.”

The situation was complicated even more in late February when a large garage belonging to the Cox family inexplicably burned to the ground, destroying some equipment and four-wheelers, and killing a mama goat, a baby goat and several rabbits. The fire has been ruled an arson and is being investigated by Kentucky State Police.

Barbara Cox said she knew it was arson all along, and she says Rickett is responsible.

“I’m sure of it because they are the only ones that got anything against us,” she said. “He [Rick Rickett] was home at the time and we were not. He stood in his yard and laughed about it.”

White said the County Surveyor has since performed a survey of the property and roadway at the center of the dispute and determined that the Ricketts are indeed illegally blocking the road. He said he just got the final results of the survey Tuesday. In any event, because of the ongoing fued, White said he was approached by Barbara Cox at a pie supper at Saxton Independent Baptist Church on March 13 and asked why he had a campaign sign in the Rickett’s yard. She worried that he was unfairly taking sides in the dispute.

“I didn’t even know they had a sign out there. I don’t remember giving him any,” White said. “I didn’t feel like I needed to be in the middle of that dispute with my political signs out there because I didn’t want it to look like I was favoring one side over another, so when it was brought to my attention … I moved the sign on my way home from the pie supper. I just thought it was the right thing to do.”

White said he believes the Ricketts were never actually supporting him in the election anyway, and were only putting his signs in their yard to make it appear as though the county was approving of their position in the property dispute, or perhaps to taunt their neighbors.

Rickett said he’s angry with White because he feels the Judge-Executive is favoring the Cox’s position in the dispute over his own.

“He thinks he’s going to get more votes across the road, but he’s not,” Rickett said. “I’ve had a little birdie tell me that they aren’t really going to vote for him.”

Rickett said regardless of whether White came and got his own sign or someone else’s that he shouldn’t have taken it to begin with.

“We didn’t ask him to remove it at all,” he said. “He trespassed on my property. He has come into my yard and he shouldn’t have been in my yard doing anything.”

White contends Rickett is being disingenuous and says candidates move their signs around all the time during elections.

“That’s not uncommon. These people just happen to have video of me moving mine and are trying to act like it’s something it’s not.”

White said shortly after the video was posted to Facebook, people asked him about the incident on the campaign trail. The questions have become less frequent of late, he says.

“People aren’t asking me about it as much anymore because I think they realize it’s just silly,” White said.