Kentucky prosecutor allegedly helped court defendants in exchange for sex and meth

The felony prosecutor in an Eastern Kentucky county has been arrested on a criminal complaint charging he helped people facing criminal charges in return for sex and methamphetamine.

An officer on an FBI task force swore out the complaint against Scott Blair on Wednesday and he was arrested Friday.

Records show Blair, 51, was booked into the Laurel County Correctional Center at 2:24 p.m. Friday.

Blair is the commonwealth’s attorney for Perry County.

Blair’s attorney, Greg Ousley, said Friday evening that he had advised Blair not to make any statements. Blair is scheduled for an initial court appearance in federal court Monday, and Ousley said he will request that Blair be released from custody.

The court record includes a lengthy affidavit from Zachary Bryson, a Kentucky State Police officer assigned to an FBI task force, citing multiple instances when people allegedly provided meth to Blair.

The charge against him is honest services fraud, meaning he allegedly deprived residents of Perry County of honest services he owed them as an elected official.

After news broke on Friday of Blair’s arrest, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman called for him to resign.

“Prosecutors cannot be effective if they violate the public trust. Given the serious accusations of abusing his office to assist criminals in exchange for drugs and sexual favors, the public good demands that Scott Blair immediately resign,” Coleman wrote.

Coleman said his office would step in to make sure felony prosecutions could continue.

‘Drugs and sexual favors’

Bryson’s affidavit said the FBI and Kentucky State Police started investigating Blair in 2023 after receiving allegations that he was abusing his position to help people facing criminal charges in return for sexual favors and meth.

The affidavit cites information from several people authorities interviewed, identifying them as cooperators or victims. It does not identify their gender, using “him or her” in most cases to describe them.

Cooperator 1 told police he or she had provided half an ounce of meth to Blair in early 2022, giving the drug to someone else who passed it on to the prosecutor.

Authorities first talked to Cooperator 2 in March 2023, who said he or she had looked at another person’s Facebook messages with Blair.

Cooperator 2 said it was apparent that Blair was messaging the person “for the purpose of obtaining both drugs and sexual favors,” according to the affidavit.

The person Blair was messaging was requesting Blair’s consideration on criminal charges pending against the person’s former girlfriend, according the the affidavit.

Cooperator 2 said the person whose Facebook messages he or she read often made remarks about feeling like “he was doing something big because he felt like he had Scott in his pocket,” Bryson said in the affidavit.

Cooperator 2 said he or she copied images of the screenshots to get “dirt” on Blair to “assist with getting out of jail in the future,” Bryson wrote.

Drug transaction

Cooperator 2 also told police he or she sold meth to Blair in Lexington during Labor Day weekend in 2022.

Blair, who planned to be in Lexington for maintenance on his vehicle, allegedly messaged an acquaintance of Cooperator 2 seeking to buy meth.

The source said he or she and the acquaintance were in a retail store in Lexington when Blair messaged that he was pulling up outside.

Cooperator 2 said he or she retrieved a quarter of an ounce of meth from a vehicle and gave it to the acquaintance, who gave it to Blair. The price was $100 or $125, the affidavit said.

Police talked to a third witness, Cooperator 3, in June 2023. The person said he or she had known Blair since the late 1990s and had provided cocaine to him in the past.

The person said he or she used the relationship with Blair to get favorable treatment for people in court three separate times.

In one case, he or she met Blair at a car wash in Hazard and provided him an eight ball of meth — meaning an eighth of an ounce, or about 3 grams — to help someone, according to the affidavit.

In another case, Cooperator 3 said he gave Blair a quarter of an ounce of meth to help someone, and the person received a probated sentence.

The third case involved someone facing a possible sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison in 2020. Cooperator 3 said he or she provided Blair with 14 grams of meth, and Blair arranged for the person to receive probation and then sent them to substance abuse treatment, according to the officer’s affidavit.

Bryson said he checked court records that backed up Cooperator 3’s information about the cases, and also saw Facebook messages between the witness and Blair.

‘One of my favorites’

The affidavit said Blair sent someone a message at one point saying he would “pay good money for someone to get naked with.”

The recipient responded he was “making it pretty good being an ice cream man,” which Bryson said was a common reference to meth.

Blair responded “You can have the ice cream, I just want a nice big cone! Lol!,” according to Bryson’s affidavit.

Cooperator 3 told police he felt Blair warned him at one point that police might be investigating him or her. That witness said he or she provided meth to Blair in return for the information.

Cooperator 4 told police that Blair contacted him or her on Facebook Messenger sometime after he was elected commonwealth’s attorney and asked if he or she “knew anybody that gets high?,” according to the affidavit.

The witness said he or she later sold meth to Blair at least 15 times.

Cooperator 4 said most of the sales occurred at Blair’s home in Hazard, and that Blair typically used the meth in the presence of the dealer, according to the affidavit.

Cooperator 4 said he expected Blair would help him if he ever got in trouble, and asked Blair about that one time.

“I can’t make you any promises, but you’re one of my favorites and we’ll see,” Blair responded, according to the affidavit.

‘Something of value’

Bryson said he obtained a search warrant in July 2023 for Blair’s Facebook account.

The search turned up numerous messages that showed Blair, while serving as prosecutor, used his position to help people facing criminal charges, and many instances in which Blair “requested something of value, including sexual favors and methamphetamine, from multiple individuals in exchange for taking actions in his official capacity to help those individuals,” Bryson wrote.

In one case in 2021, Blair allegedly began communicating with a person who was on probation, identified as Victim 1, and tried to get him or her to take part a sexual relationship, Bryson wrote.

At one point, Victim 1 messaged Blair about a concern that he or she may have missed a court date, which could have meant going to jail on a probation violation.

Blair checked on whether there was a warrant issued for the person and messaged him or her that he didn’t see one.

Blair told the person “You now officially owe me” and referred to a sexual encounter, according to the sworn statement from Bryson.

Blair messaged the person another time and said, “Ok. I was going to see if you wanted to (have sex),” according to the affidavit.

Bryson said a string of messages on another occasion showed that Blair let Victim 1 know there was an active warrant for him or her in a theft case, then asked Victim 1, “Want to come (have sex with) me? Please.”

Blair also told Victim 1 at one point he would not seek to violate his or her parole.

‘Turned on him’

The affidavit included details on alleged communications beginning in March 2022 between Blair and another person identified as Victim 2, who was on probation for a number of charges.

The two exchanged sexually explicit images, and in a later message about arranging to meet for sex, Blair told Victim 2 he had some “clear,” and asked if the person liked it.

Bryson said clear is slang for meth.

Bryson said the messages showed interactions between Blair and a person identified as Victim 3 about drug transactions.

In April 2021, Victim 3 messaged Blair to say he had some good meth. Blair messaged back, “Ok. I will probably do like a 40. Is it really good no kidding?,” according to the affidavit.

Bryson said in his statement that messages showed Blair tried to get another person, Victim 5, to meet him for sex and later pledged he would not recommend violating Victim 5’s probation over a failed drug test.

Finally, Bryson said that in March, he received information from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office that an inmate at the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard had made a complaint about Blair.

The inmate, identified as Victim 4, said Blair “catches people struggling in life, having a hard time with hardly no family out there to help them and he gets them in a bind and blackmails them to do things for him and makes them promises,” according to the affidavit.

Blair told Victim 4 he needed him or her to pick up meth for Blair, according to the affidavit.

The inmate said Blair “had me go pick his drugs up for him and would bring me into his house, just different things that were not right,” according to the affidavit.

Victim 4 said he picked up meth for Blair about 30 times. Sometimes Blair had already arranged the deal and paid, and sometimes he just gave Victim 4 money and told him or her to find some meth, according to the affidavit.

He also took meth to Blair at his office in the courthouse during working hours, victim 4 told authorities.

One time he went to Blair’s home to deliver meth, Blair answered the door naked, victim 4 said.

Blair laid down two $100 bills and said, “I probated you and now I want to (perform oral sex on you),” according to the affidavit.

Victim 4 said he didn’t want to do that, but felt he couldn’t say no because of Blair’s position as prosecutor.

Victim 4 also said he picked up people for Blair to have sex with and took them to Blair’s home, according to the affidavit.

Blair was blackmailing several people in drug court to do things for him as well, victim 4 said.

Victim 4 said that after he ultimately refused to help Blair, Blair “turned on him” and recommended kicking him out of drug court.

“VICTIM 4 was then sent back to jail for a probation violation, where he remains,” Bryson wrote.