Ky. Rev. Stat. » Chapter 524
Kentucky Revised Statutes

Ky. Rev. Stat. § 524.020 (2026)

Bribing a witness

✓ current as of May 2026
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(1) A person is guilty of bribing a witness when he offers, confers or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a witness or a person he believes may be called as a witness in any official proceeding with intent to: (a) Influence the testimony of that person; or (b) Induce that person to avoid legal process summoning him to testify; or (c) Induce that person to absent himself from an official proceeding to which he has been legally summoned. (2) Bribing a witness is a Class D felony. Effective: January 1, 1975 History: Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 406, sec. 201, effective January 1, 1975.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 7 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1981–2024 · leading case: Schaefer v. Commonwealth, 622 S.W.2d 218 (Ky. 1981).
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Schaefer v. Commonwealth, 622 S.W.2d 218 (Ky. 1981). · cites it 6× “Brian Douglas Schaefer was convicted by a jury of bribing a witness (KRS 524.020) and sentenced to one year in prison.”
Radford v. Lovelace, 212 S.W.3d 72 (Ky. 2006). · cites it 2× “KRS 524.020, bribing a witness, states that there must be a benefit conferred upon the witness to influence his/her testimony.”
Burdell v. Commonwealth, 990 S.W.2d 628 (Ky. 1999). “2d 135 (1985), in which we held that the offense of bribing a witness, KRS 524.020, could be committed even though no official proceeding was underway at the time the bribe was offered, so long as the jury believed “that the accused had an intent to influence the testimony of a…”
Penn v. Commonwealth, 687 S.W.2d 135 (Ky. 1985). · cites it 7× “Jewell Penn appeals to this Court from a judgment and conviction of the Crittenden Circuit Court sentencing him to one year in the State Penitentiary on a charge of bribing a witness, KRS 524.020, and a $500.00 fine on a charge of trafficking in marijuana KRS 218A.”
Benjamin Gerald Dusing v. Kentucky Bar Ass'n (Ky. 2024). · cites it 2× “See KRS 524.020 (providing “(1) [a] person is guilty of bribing a witness when he offers, confers or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a witness or a person he believes may be called as a witness in any official proceeding with intent to: (a) Influence the testimony of…”
Ruben Johnson, IV v. Commonwealth of Kentucky (Ky. 2023). “A criminal trespass, a Class A misdemeanor, occurs when a person “knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a dwelling.” KRS 511.060(1). Johnson was not a co-tenant with Martin.”
Fahrbach v. Harder (E.D. Ky. 2023). “Harder") and Jeanine Harder, bribery in violation of KRS 524.020 and interstate Kidnapping (Also known as the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act "PKPA” (Defendants Jeanine Harder, Shaun Harder and Sheriff Levorchick)) in violation of 18 U.”
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