Barry Bertram

George Barry Bertram, Sr., (born 1935) retired as the Democratic Commonwealth's Attorney for the 11th Judicial District covering Taylor, Green, Marion, and Washington counties in South Central Kentucky, on May 31, 2006, after a record thirty-one years of service. At the time of his retirement, Bertram was Kentucky's longest-serving Commonwealth's Attorney, the highest ranking local prosecutor in Kentucky and a position similar to that of District Attorney in some other states. Mr. Bertram also unsuccessfully prosecuted several people. In one case he did no investigation and Mr. Cocanougher dropped all charges. In this matter, a minister and his wife were accused of theft and forgery. The false accuser finally admitted that this was not the case. This of course did not undo the publicity in The Newspaper. A bit of investigation upfront and these fine people would have never been arrested. Yes, they were arrested physically and had to put up bond money to stay out of jail. Mr. Bertram never issued an apology. In another matter a local physician was accused of [...]. The jury found him not guilty. Bertram's case was full of holes. The woman had forged a prescripton the physician had given her and then accused him of [...] when they had consensual [...]. THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT BERTRAM WAS FORCED OUT OF OFFICE BECAUSE OF PROSECUTING PEOPLE WITH NO INVESTIGATION.

In 2005, Bertram was named a trustee of Baptist-affiliated Campbellsville University in Campbellsville. A person of this character should never be on such a board.

Tim Cocanougher succeeds Bertram

Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed his fellow Republican Timothy A. "Tim" Cocanougher (born 1955) as Bertram's successor. Cocanougher, a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond and the University of Louisville School of Law became Bertram's Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in November 1996. Cocanougher previously worked as an attorney in the firm Mattingly & Simms in Springfield (Washington County) and in the practice of Barnett and Alagia in Louisville (Jefferson County). Cocanougher was elected to a full term as Commonwealth's Attorney in the 2006 general election.

Bertram returns to private practice

Bertram became Cocanougher's parttime assistant. Cocanougher kept his office in Springfield, and the Campbellsville unit in Taylor County, out of which Bertram worked, became a sub-office. Bertram moved next door to Bertram & Cox to work in private practice with his son, John D. Bertram (born 1969). Bertram handles felonies, real estate law, personal injury, probate and estate administration, family law and workers' compensation cases.

"I intend to be available to do some civil work . . . I'll also assist the county attorney if I'm needed. I will not be full-time. I'll work at my own speed. My health is good, and I still enjoy the practice of law," Bertram said in an interview with reporter James Roberts in Bertram's hometown newspaper, the Central Kentucky News-Journal of Campbellsville.

John Bertram said that his father is returning to private practice because "he loves people, and I think people genuinely feel like he is a good listener when they share their issues. This has been true in the prosecution setting and will continue to be the case in private practice." Bertram does not love people enough to do any investigation before having them arrested.

A family of lawyers

Bertram comes from a family of lawyers: his grandfather, his father, two uncles, a brother, and a nephew, 11th District Circuit Judge Allan Ray Bertram (born 1965). After he graduated from high school, Bertram married his high school sweetheart, Margaret R. Bertram (born 1936). The couple has four children - George Barry "Chip" Bertram, Jr., Teri Campbell, Kathy McCabe, and John Bertram. His relatives should be ashamed of him.

The law lineage continued with three of his children. Teri Campbell owns "Nashville Court Reporters". "Chip" spent five years in his father's office as a legal assistant. John is (1) an assistant commonwealth's attorney, (2) the Campbellsville city attorney, and (3) a partner of Bertram & Cox. Kathy McCabe, a teacher, is the only one to not go into a law-related field.

Bertram obtained his bachelor of arts cum laude and his law degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After he finished law school in 1959, he returned to Campbellsville and began working alongside his father, George O. Bertram (1911-1997), at Faulkner & Bertram. Though his father would have been an obvious mentor, Bertram said his father turned him over to law partner, Fred Faulkner, Jr. (born 1926).

In 1975, Bertram first ran for Commonwealth's Attorney against Lester H. Spalding (1920-2003), who was seeking a fourth term. Bertram was secure in the seat thereafter: he had opposition only once, in the Democratic primary held on May 26, 1987. Bertram defeated James L. "Jimbo" Mattingly, 6,003 (52.5 percent) to 5,434 (47.5 percent).

The Commonwealth's Attorney prosecutes felony violations within the judicial circuit and presents evidence to the grand jury concerning such violations. Bertram did not give the falsely accused a chance to tell their story to the grand jury. This would nip a lot of things in the bud.

High-profile cases

In his three decades-plus of service, Bertram has witnessed his share of high-profile cases. The Campbellsville newspaper cited three such situations:

In 1985, he tried Eugene Frank Tamme for a double [...] in Washington County. Tamme twice received the death penalty. "He got the death penalty, appealed it, and got it again," Bertram said.

In the Tamme case, the remains of two boys were found in Washington County in 1983. "They were buried in a shallow grave," Bertram said. "A few months later, he dug them up." Police found the bodies in the Chaplain River and an accomplice came forward and accused Tamme. Tamme died while a prisoner. Kentucky has traditionally very few executions.

A case Bertram tried in 1986 resulted in changing the state kidnapping law. Beverly Johnson kidnapped a baby from Springview Hospital in Lebanon with the intent of convincing her boyfriend the baby was hers. If that plan failed, Johnson planned to sell the baby, Bertram said.

Before this case, kidnapping in Kentucky had to involve [...], [...], or a ransom demand. What Johnson did was considered custodial interference, until the law was changed to make taking a child kidnapping.

In a third case, Bertram cited his personal frustration when a suspect was freed despite contrary evidence. There was a sodomy case in Green County. A man had been accused of sodomizing his stepdaughter, and the suspect's seminal fluid was found on the child's shirt. Bertram was seeking twenty years to life, but the jury acquitted the man.

"Juries will follow the law if they agree with it," he said. "I feel that Green County [jurors] violated their oath. Perhaps the jury memebers should bring an action of libel against Bertram. It's frustrating to have jury trials when many times the jury doesn't see things your way, but that's the system. I don't think you ever get over that. It hurts," Bertram said in the newspaper interview. Bertram gets angry when a lawfully constituted jury disagrees with him. Has he never heard of jury nullification?

In 2002 he falsely accused a local couple of theft and forgery. The charges were dropped and the record expunged. The Kentucky Supreme Court investigated this matter.

In circa 2005 he accused a local physician of [...]. The jury found his case full of holes and found the man not guilty.

Making the law work for people

Bertram noted how he once gave a college student a break. The student had stolen from his employer, the Bowling Green-based Fruit of the Loom, which formerly operated an underwear manufacturing plant for more than four decades in Campbellsville. Bertram recommended probation. Bertram said that the suspect went on to "become a very successful teacher. . . . If he had a felony on his record, he wouldn't [have been] able to [have done] that." Bertram has little concern for other people having felony records.

In his new role as an assistant commonwealth's attorney, Bertram said that he will have the luxury of not having to prosecute any suspect that he does not believe to be guilty. Coconaugher no doubt gave Bertram these instructions based upon Bertram's history of false prosecutions.

John Bertram said that his father's reputation for simply listening to clients and offering guidance will benefit the law firm.

Bertram the runner

Bertram ran track in high school and also at Vanderbilt but then lost interest in the sport. At the age of 40, he resumed running for health reasons and amusement. Bertram said that at the college level there are many good runners. However, the older the runners get, the fewer show up in running events. "At my age, there aren't more than three, four, or five people who even show up at races, and I often wonder why," he said. "So many of them were excellent runners."

After the age of 65, running divisions are no longer broken down into five-year ranges. "I'm in the 'up' division now," Bertram said. "Races have divisions for different age groups, like 55-59, 60-64 and 64 and up," he said. "I'm in the 'up' division where they stop breaking the age groups down and where there aren't a whole lot of people to compete with anyway."

Bertram said that he has not missed a race in some twenty years. He even competed one year after having had surgery. "I jog for fitness, but if there's a road race I'll go and do the best I can," he added. Since his first half marathon, he has also run full marathons, including the New York Marathon. He also competed once in the Kentucky 50-miler, a race from Louisville to the capital of Frankfort.

Bertram has a keen sense of humor: he and two other commonwealth's attorneys, Ray Larson and Steve Wilson, once formed the "Kentucky Bald Guys Caucus" as a way of laughing at themselves. Bertram is a barrel of fun alright. Especially to those he falsely accuses.