Mike Killian, former mayor of South Pittsburg, Tenn., makes his way into federal court Thursday to be sentenced on a federal gambling charge to which he pleaded guilty. Investigators estimate he made more than $800,000 while operating video poker, illegal sports betting and a lottery in the Marion County town.
The Richard City Market in South Pittsburg, Tenn., which was raided by federal agents last year during a gambling investigation of former Mayor Mike Killian, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014.Former South Pittsburg Mayor Mike Killian admits he was wrong to run a 25-year-long gambling operation but claims that others run similar enterprises and that he was targeted because of his political position and a prominent relative.
During his federal sentencing hearing Thursday, Killian, 56, publicly apologized to his family and South Pittsburg residents, saying that his gambling operation got “out of hand.”
“I especially did wrong to engage in that while I was holding public office,” he said. “And one or the other should have stopped.”
But Killian also told U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier, “I just don’t want Your Honor to think that me and Mr. [Robert] Cole are alone in this,” he said. “I’m not the only one who had poker machines in the county. It’s just not true.”
The Lotto Mart in South Pittsburg, Tenn., which was raided by federal agents last year during a gambling investigation of former Mayor Mike Killian, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014.Mike Killian speculated that information about his gambling side businesses was likely discovered as officials researched his brother Bill Killian’s background upon his nomination to be the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.