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KRS 521.020

Bribery of public servant

Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case McCall v. Courier-Journal & Louisville Times Co. (1981)

Most recently applied in Dustan Hale v. Boyle Cnty., Ky. (November 2021)

Effective: July 15, 1994 History: Amended 1994 Ky

How often courts cite this section

19761980199020002010202120
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person is guilty of bribery of a public servant when:

(a) He offers, confers, or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a public servant with the intent to influence the public servant's vote, opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion, or other action in his official capacity as a public servant; or (b) While a public servant, he solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit upon an agreement or understanding that his vote, opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion, or other action as a public servant will thereby be influenced.

(2) It is a defense under this section if a person confers or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a public servant as a result of conduct of the public servant which constitutes extortion or coercion.

(3) It is no defense to a prosecution under this section that the person sought to be influenced was not qualified to act in the desired way because he had not yet assumed office, lacked jurisdiction, or for any other reason.

(4) Bribery of a public servant is a Class C felony.

Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.