Campbell County Political Activist Guilty of Drug Trafficking

These prescription pill bottles were seized from JR Roth's residence in June of 2016 after a search warrant was executed. Pictures obtained by Fort Thomas Matters. Case photo. 

A local political activist will be sentenced Tuesday, after a Campbell County jury found him guilty of two felony counts of trafficking in a controlled substance on Thursday, June 22.

John "J.R." Roth, 61, was indicted in August of 2016 for possessing morphine and oxycodone with the intent to sell.

After a two-day trial in front of Judge Fred Stine and prosecuted by Commonwealth's Attorney, Kyle Burns, the jury returned two guilty verdicts that will carry up to 15 years in the state penitentiary. The first count, trafficking of morphine over ten dosage units, accounted for 10 years of the sentence, while the count of trafficking of oxycodone carried five years. The jury gave instructions for both counts to be served consecutively.

Fort Thomas Matters has learned that Roth could have received between two to five years had he pled guilty before trial.

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In June of 2016 a search warrant for Roth's Cold Spring home was obtained by the Campbell County Drug Strike Task Force after law enforcement had received information from a cooperating witness that identified Roth as being a trafficker in oxycodone.

JR Roth was arrested in June of 2016 for the current drug trafficking charges. Mugshot: Campbell County Detention Center. 

According to the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant, she told police that she had been in contact with Roth and agreed to go to his house to buy the oxycodone after being provided with audio and video recording devices and $100 in documented funds by police.

The report goes onto say that the cooperating witness was given five pills, later determined to be Oxycodone 10mg, in exchange for $80.

The next day, on June 15, 2016, the cooperating witness made a recorded call to Roth who indicated he was out of Oxycodone but that he had morphine he could sell to her.

From the executed search warrant, police confiscated $56,000 in shrink wrapped cash, his phone, multiple prescription bottles and 12 firearms.

A Kaspar report was performed on Roth by police and determined that he had a prescription for oxycodone, but not morphine.

Over recent years Roth has not been a stranger to the courtroom.

In July, Fort Thomas Matters was the only media outlet there when he was taken into custody directly from a Campbell County District courtroom after a motion was filed by the County Attorneys' office to revoke an appeal bond after he was found guilty of mistreating horses on his Campbell County farm.

The conviction of that verdict was affirmed from a 2013 case in which a jury found him guilty of second-degree cruelty to animals.

RELATED: Northern Kentucky Tea Party Activist Sent To Jail 

That case is still on appeal.

A previous conviction had been expunged upon diversion.

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Roth is well-known in Campbell County political circles. A member of the Northern Kentucky Tea Party, he has been vocal about government over-spending and was one of the plaintiffs in the 2012 lawsuit that sought to repeal the property tax that funds libraries in Campbell County.

In July of 2016, minutes before being jailed for the animal cruelty charge, Roth told Fort Thomas Matters that he believed he was being "railroaded."

"The court is letting everyone else bond out and I’m going to jail because I’ve been a fly in the local government ointment in Campbell County. I’ve held the library and fiscal court to proper tax rates and the effect of that is somewhere around 50 million that I have saved the residents of Campbell County in taxes," said Roth.

"They’ve been sitting on my appeal for two years.  I’ve showed up to every court hearing, never skipped one but they want me in jail. They want to make an example out of me."

RELATED: Hear Roth on his displeasure with the Campbell County reorganization process on FTM Radio. (Skip to minute 22:00).

Roth is currently out on bond, having expedited his sentencing to Tuesday, in lieu of being taken into custody upon receiving the guilty verdicts.

Fort Thomas Matters will update this article.

A book titled, The Pill Book, was found on Roth's property after a search warrant was executed. Case photo.

Cash, shrink wrapped and in a safe, was also found at Roth's house. Case photo. 

Case photo.