By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BURLINGTON - Ronald Joseph Epling was slyly brilliant as Florence's finance director. His surprise guilty plea Tuesday to 35 counts of theft from the city totaling $2.8 million may show some of that same brilliance.

Even as the charges against him mount and the total believed missing from city accounts rises to almost $5 million, he'll be eligible for parole in four years.

The guilty plea stunned the prosecutor, the mayor and the court. It has officials scrambling to figure out how the plea could affect future prosecution of Epling. The 51-year-old Delhi Township man is believed to have embezzled an additional $2.1 million for a total of $4.9 million over about 13 years.

"I plead guilty, judge," Epling told senior Judge Stan Billingsley in Boone Circuit Court.

Defense attorney Burr Travis said Epling was tired of living a double life and just wanted the court proceedings to wrap up as quickly as possible.

But the plea - entered the day before the state prosecutor was to meet with federal authorities about turning over her case - could hamper federal prosecution of Epling.

"This guilty plea came out of left field," said Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally Smith. "My greatest concern is the impact this will have on the ability of the U.S. Attorney's Office to become involved and their ability to help us recover the assets ... stolen from Florence."

But Epling's attorney, who argued a case in 1983 that set the sentencing limit on the crime Epling admitted, said Epling's goal was "to get this resolved as quick as possible."

"The real deal is that from day one, when Mr. Epling was arrested, there was relief in his mind because this embezzlement was being brought to the forefront and that it was over," Travis said.

Smith said federal authorities told her Tuesday that they could still file money laundering charges because embezzled money was channeled through legitimate businesses.

Smith said she will recommend Epling be sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in prison during a hearing scheduled for March 25. He would be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence - four years.

"I was going to let him plead guilty if he wanted to," said Billingsley, who had the right not to accept the plea. "I understand why the commonwealth tried to object to the guilty plea. She was just being conscientious."

Billingsley, of Carrollton, was a district judge for 19 years before earning the status of senior judge and assigned to Circuit Court in Boone County to help relieve a heavy case load.

Additional theft charges could be filed against Epling in what's turning into the largest public corruption case in Tristate history, Smith said, but that won't mean Epling will serve any more time in a state penitentiary.

"The unfortunate part is that under the state law he can only be sentenced to 20 years no matter how many counts of theft there are," Florence Mayor Diane Whalen said. She is supporting a push in Frankfort to strengthen the law for white-collar embezzlement.

Travis, Epling's lawyer, defended a man in Boone Circuit Court two decades ago in a case that led to the 20-year cap. In that case, the defendant was charged with stealing $1,000 on more than 100 separate occasions.

On appeal, the case led to the establishment of the sentencing cap on this crime.

The Kentucky General Assembly is considering a bill, inspired by the Epling case, to make violation of the public trust a felony with a maximum sentence of 70 years.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, would also prohibit someone convicted of violation of the public trust from holding public office.

Even if passed in this legislative session, the law would not apply to Epling's case.

"I don't know whether to be happily shocked or unhappily shocked by the guilty plea," Whalen said after the hearing. "Until I have the chance to sit down with the prosecutors to see what our options are, where we go from here, I don't know what to expect."

The Department of Justice has seized $400,000 from four accounts controlled by Epling at various Tristate banks, but Whalen said the city has not yet received any restitution from Epling.

Smith had said she was hoping to tap the federal government's expertise in recovering embezzled funds for this case.

"Mr. Epling has an idea of how to get large sums of money back to the city," Travis said. "We are working with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to resolve the restitution issues."

The 14-page indictment of Epling outlined 35 thefts from Florence's capital improvements account from August 1995 to Aug. 26, 2002. The two largest thefts were of $250,000 each on Oct. 16, 1998, and Oct. 13, 1999. The smallest amount was for $9,280 on May 16, 2001.

Epling is accused of stashing away miscellaneous checks written to the city, a state police detective has testified. Authorities said Epling would then improperly deposit those checks in the city's capital improvements account. He did this to cover up periodic thefts from the city's general fund, in which he intercepted checks written to capital improvements and put them instead in his personal bank accounts.

The accountant then spent the money, in part, on gambling trips to Las Vegas and houses for his live-in girlfriend and his estranged wife, authorities have testified.

Florence has hired Linda Chapman, 39, of Green Township, the auditor who discovered Epling's thefts, as his replacement. She begins work in March.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com