ASHLAND, Ky. — A Johnson County man has entered a guilty plea to charges associated with armed drug trafficking.

Brian “Butterbean” Charles, 43, of Thelma, was arrested after Kentucky State Police conducted a drug raid at his home July 7 and seized 3 lbs. of meth, 28 grams of fentanyl, eight handguns, a shotgun and more than $23,000 in cash.

He was later indicted for possession of meth and fentanyl with the intent to distribute and using a gun in a drug trafficking crime.

In his plea agreement, Charles admitted to buying the drugs out of state, with plans to redistribute them to other dealers in Johnson County, as he had done in the past.

Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, although he could receive a substantially shorter sentence. He will be back in court March 15 for sentencing.

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LONDON, Ky. — A repeat child sex offender has entered a guilty plea to a federal child pornography charge.

Gary Don Hampton, 49, of Virgie, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of receiving and one count of possessing child porn in London federal court. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

In his plea agreement, he admitted to possessing images of children younger than 12 on his phone. He also admitted receiving 10 videos through the Telegram app of children as young as 4 engaged in sexual activity with adults.

Hampton was first arrested and charged in Pike Circuit Court with 20 counts of possession of child porn back in September 2023. That case was dismissed when Hampton was not indicted, due to being extradited to South Carolina, where he faced a charge of criminal solicitation of a minor. He ultimately pleaded guilty in the South Carolina case, receiving a five-year sentence.

He also pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse and indecent exposure in Letcher County back in 2018, in a case involving a 13-year-old victim. He received a nine-month sentence in that case.

Harmon entered his plea before a federal magistrate. The judge has decided to defer a decision on whether to accept the plea until sentencing.

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LOUISA, Ky. — Days after Addiction Recovery Care was ordered to pay more than $18 million to resolve a pair of lawsuits for selling the same tax credits to two different companies, the Louisa-based addiction treatment provider is facing another lawsuit for failing to pay nearly $1 million for prescription drug benefit services.

VerusRX LLC, a Texas-based pharmacy benefit management company, filed the breach-of-contract complaint Sept. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas. The company seeks $962,000 in damages, along with late fees, interest and attorney fees.

According to the complaint, VerusRX entered into a pharmacy services agreement with ARC effective Oct. 1, 2023. Under the agreement, VerusRX provided prescription benefit management services for ARC health plan members, including processing prescription claims, managing pharmacy networks and administering drug formularies.

VerusRX alleges ARC stopped making regular payments in October 2025, when the company’s third-party administrator, UMR, also discontinued payments on ARC’s behalf.

The complaint says VerusRX began billing ARC directly in December 2025 and made repeated attempts to collect the outstanding balance. ARC allegedly requested additional time to pay, citing a pending acquisition expected to improve its financial position.

The companies later agreed to an installment payment plan in March 2026, under which ARC was to pay about $295,000 by March 27 and the remaining amount by April 17. According to the complaint, ARC missed the first payment deadline.

VerusRX says ARC made a $25,000 payment on April 10, but no further payments were received. The complaint also describes subsequent discussions about paying the debt through a proposed financing arrangement involving Actus Group.

VerusRX alleges the outstanding balance continued to grow and that prescription benefits were suspended June 30, 2026, because of nonpayment. The company says ARC owed approximately $962,000 when the lawsuit was filed.

The complaint seeks repayment of the alleged debt, contractual late fees of up to 1.5% per month on qualifying unpaid invoices, and recovery of legal costs and attorney fees.

The allegations have not been adjudicated, and the complaint does not establish that ARC is liable for the amount sought. ARC has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

A copy of the complaint follows:

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ASHLAND, Ky. — An inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting federal officers and causing bodily injury.

Malik Alleyne, 30, was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 13, by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning after pleading guilty to two counts of assaulting a federal officer resulting in bodily injury.

According to federal prosecutors, the incident occurred Jan. 21, 2026, when Alleyne became disruptive in his cell at the federal prison in Inez.

When staff ordered him to stop, Alleyne displayed a razor blade attached to a plastic handle, prosecutors said. After staff entered the cell, Alleyne attacked an officer, punching, biting and striking the officer multiple times and causing bodily injury.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Ridings prosecuted it on behalf of the federal government.

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ASHLAND, Ky. — A Lawrence County man has been sentenced to five years of probation for illegally discharging oil-production waste into a creek.

Josh Ferguson, 42, of Martha, was also ordered to serve 12 months of home detention with electronic monitoring and pay a $20,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors say Ferguson admitted to discharging brine water from two oil wells into Left Fork Blaine Creek without a permit. The practice had reportedly continued for two years.

Investigators found a hose running from a brine tank into the creek. Water downstream was orange, showed no signs of aquatic life, and samples revealed extremely high chloride levels.

Ferguson was sentenced Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning after pleading guilty to knowingly discharging waste into waters of the United States.

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LONDON, Ky. — A trial date has been set for a Prestonsburg man charged with possessing child pornography.

Jimmy Ray Brown, 31, of Cliffside Apartments, faces a single charge of possessing child porn. He was arrested Sept. 9, after the FBI, Kentucky State Police and Prestonsburg Police raided his home.

Agents with the FBI’s Huntington office began investigating in order to identify a person downloading and sharing child porn videos using the BitTorrent file sharing service. Investigators say the computer’s internet connection was associated with approximately 1,833 instances of suspected child pornography being possessed or exchanged over a little more than three months.

During his arraignment on Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Hanly Ingram ordered him to stand trial on Dec. 8 in London federal court. The trial is expected to last two days.

If convicted, he will face up to 20 years in prison.

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LONDON, Ky. — A Floyd County school bus driver who is accused of trying to entice a minor into sexual activity is asking the court to release him from jail.

Andrew Lewis, 40, of Prestonsburg, is currently facing up to 10 years in prison after being indicted for attempted online enticement of a minor in London federal court. The indictment accuses Little of messaging a middle school student, trying to persuade the minor to engage in sexual activity that would likely result in a criminal charge of first-degree sexual abuse.

During a detention hearing back in August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Hanly Ingram ordered him to remain in jail while awaiting trial, saying there were no reasonable conditions of release that would ensure the safety of the public.

But his attorney, Stephen Owens, says in a motion filed on Monday that the ruling does not match the evidence presented at the detention hearing. Owens says Lewis is accused of touching a student’s rear and of making a statement online about wanting to place his face on another student’s chest.

“While this may not be appropriate language it does not rise to a level requiring detention,” Owens writes in the motion. The Government has not shown that no available release conditions can reasonably protect the minor or the community.”

Owens goes on to say the safety of the public and his client’s appearance in court could be assured through “a no-contact order, no employment that requires contact with minors, no use of internet accessible devices, GPS monitoring and home detention.”

The motion is only a request and has not yet been ruled on by a judge. Prosecutors will have a chance to respond before any decision is made.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Virgie man has been sentenced to 80 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Charles Hopkins, 35, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell.

According to federal prosecutors, law enforcement received a tip May 6, 2025, that a sexually explicit video involving a child younger than 12 had been uploaded to Hopkins’ Verizon cloud storage account. Investigators later seized and searched Hopkins’ cellphone and discovered additional child pornography, including images involving children younger than 12 and infants.

Under federal law, Hopkins must serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence. Following his release, he will be placed under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 15 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Blankenship prosecuted the case. The FBI conducted the investigation.

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LONDON, Ky. — An Ohio man who was arrested back in August after police found a quarter-pound of meth in his car has now been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Delbert Lee Chambers, 42, of Akron, was arrested Aug. 26, after he was pulled over for driving 5 mph over the speed limit. During the stop, police smelled marijuana smoke, so they searched the car. That searched turned up only a small amount of marijuana, but also quarter-pound of meth in the glove compartment.

He found himself in even more trouble when he got to jail, where a search revealed several bags of fentanyl and a bag of ecstasy or a similar drug sewn inside his underwear.

Chambers is now charged with possession of more than 50 grams of meth and more than 40 grams of fentanyl with the intent to distribute. If convicted, he will face a sentence of between five and 40 years.

He continues to be held in the Pike County Detention Center.

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LONDON, Ky. — A Prestonsburg man who was arrested on a child porn charge after police raided his apartment last month has now been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Jimmy Ray Brown, 31, was arrested on a single count of possessing child porn after the FBI, Kentucky State Police and Prestonsburg Police executed a search warrant at his home Sept. 9.

Brown’s arrest came following a long and winding investigation by the FBI’s Huntington office. Agents began investigating in order to identify a person downloading and sharing child porn videos using the BitTorrent file sharing service. Investigators say the computer’s internet connection was associated with approximately 1,833 instances of suspected child pornography being possessed or exchanged over a little more than three months.

The search first took investigators to Logan County, W.Va., where Brown’s internet service provider is based, before they were able to determine that the account accessing the files was based in an apartment at Cliffside Apartments in Prestonsburg.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury in London indicted Brown on a charge of possessing child porn. If convicted, he will face up to 20 years in prison.

Brown is being held without bond in the Laurel County jail.

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