WVVA TV Bluefield Beckley WV News, Weather and SportsBob Graham: in his words part three

Bob Graham: in his words part three

Bob Graham worked for the Wyoming County Council on Aging for nearly three decades before he resigned in August 2006. To this day, controversy still surrounds Graham, despite the fact that his original federal conviction was overturned. And the civil suit filed by the state of West Virginia against him and the Council on Aging circulated the legal system for more than five years before it was dismissed. 

Bob Graham, at age 62, is now retired. He still lives in Wyoming County and spends much of his free time re-modeling his home and visiting with family .Graham spent 13 months in a federal prison before he was released in March 2008. At that time a federal appellant court in Richmond, Virginia overturned his conviction. Graham has always maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing. 

"When the Fourth Circuit, which is the most conservative circuit in the United States overturned the verdict, which is truly remarkable. It is a one in a million chance that they will overturn a judge," says Bob Graham.

 Graham plans to one day share the details of his experience in writing. He has kept stacks of  court documents, evidence, notes, and newspaper articles and pertaining to his case.

 Graham comments, "I am pretty well organized with what I am going to do. But it is very difficult to sit down and write some of the harder parts of it. There is a lot of comedy in the book that is much easier to write. Some of the things that happened are humorous and I don't have any problem getting those on paper." 

Graham feels that he got an unfair shake in the press. and all that negative attention helped shaped people's opinions about him.

 "I wouldn't try to change their minds. If people are so opinionated that they believe what they read in the media. If they want to hate me, then they can go ahead and hate me, because I am not going to change one bit," says Graham. 

The state's civil case against Graham and the Wyoming Council was dismissed in September 2009. Despite the ordeal, Graham says he enjoyed his tenure at the agency, especially the thousands of seniors he met along the way. 

"I knew their families. I knew them. I have some really great memories of that. I wish the aging community well and I intend to be involved with it in some capacity or the other, but I wouldn't try to change their minds," says Graham. 

Once the economy rebounds, Graham hopes to start a business that is involved with senior citizen care in some capacity.