Well-known local attorney J. Marshall Hughes is the latest to join the list of Republican leaders and state officials to be indicted amid growing allegations of abuse of the state merit hiring system.

Hughes, who directed questions to his attorney, was indicted by a special grand jury in Franklin County, along with Kentucky Republican Party Treasurer Dave Disponett, at midday Thursday, bringing the total number of people under indictment to 13. His indictment and Disponett’s are the first to name people who did not work directly for state government.

Hughes faces two counts of criminal conspiracy and political discrimination, alleging that between the start of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration and May, Hughes conspired with others now under indictment to place people in merit jobs because they are Republicans.

The second count is specific, accusing Hughes of conspiring to promote Marjorie Ann Stewart to Highway District administrative manager in Warren County because she’s a Republican.

Stewart, a former Edmonson County Circuit Court clerk, was Fletcher’s campaign manager for that county. The Louisville Courier-Journal has reported that she was hired Feb. 16 at $43,401 per year. A week later, that was raised by 32 percent to $57,500 after she complained, taking her from the bottom of her pay grade’s schedule to the top.

The grand jury had already indicted 11 previous or former members of Fletcher’s administration. After the first nine indictments, Fletcher issued blanket pardons intended to cover all those charged in the past or future.

Hughes is a member of the Kentucky Republican Party Central Executive Committee, was a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention and has served as an unpaid adviser to Fletcher.

Reached a few hours after his indictment, Hughes said he had not yet seen the charges and referred questions to his attorney, Steve Thornton of Bowling Green.

Thornton said Thursday evening that he expects Fletcher to issue a statement that his pardons are intended to cover Hughes and Disponett. He called the indictment &#8220an exercise in futility,” and said he expects the case to be resolved quickly.

&#8220I think it’s unfortunate that we’re still talking about things that the governor put to rest months ago,” he said.

Attorney General Greg Stumbo, who has been conducting the investigation since a whistleblower from the Transportation Cabinet stepped forward early this year, has said that he doesn’t intend his investigation to be bound by Fletcher’s pardons, Thornton said.

Thornton expects a motion to be submitted in Franklin Circuit Court to quash the indictments, based on the pardons, he said.

In any case, he argues that Hughes could not have been part of any conspiracy since he didn’t actually work for the state.

&#8220My first reaction is that Marshall is an unpaid volunteer, who clearly had no official standing in state government. In order to have been involved in any kind of a hiring scheme, he would have had to have some authority,” Thornton said. &#8220He couldn’t have hired anybody if he’d wanted to. I don’t think you can ‘conspire’ without having some authority.”

Prosecutor Scott Crawford-Sutherland said a person did not have to be employed by state government to have a role in breaking the law.

&#8220If an individual hypothetically were sitting in the governor’s office and their role was to basically shuttle preferred job candidates into merit positions … by working with people that did have appointing authority, they are no less accountable than the people who actually did it,” Crawford-Sutherland said.

He added that Fletcher’s pardon should not extend to Disponett or Hughes because the governor did not mention them by name.

&#8220The law does not allow the governor to pardon unnamed people for uncharged offenses,” he said. &#8220This is an unprecedented act by a governor in Kentucky’s history.”

Hughes’ and Disponett’s names frequently appeared in administration e-mails about state hiring decisions, investigators have found.

The Lexington Herald-Leader has reported that Hughes met regularly with Disponett and Dan Druen, who was indicted on 22 felony counts before his July 19 resignation as the Transportation Cabinet’s administrative services commissioner, to discuss hiring for merit-system jobs.

Hughes’ name appears at the head of a list of state job applicants who were investigated for party loyalty, though it was not clear whether he was the list’s author or recipient, according to the Herald-Leader.

The investigation also uncovered an undated five-page note by Hughes on merit system rules, which asked how to get all jobs in counties and district Transportation Cabinet offices for Republicans.

Thornton said he hasn’t seen the documents in which Hughes is mentioned, but dismissed their significance.

&#8220None of that makes any difference when a pardon’s been issued, and of course he had no authority to hire anybody anyway,” he said.

– The Associated Press contributed information for this story.