Richard Beliles joined protests for civil rights in the 1950s in Louisville and was chair of Common Cause/Kentucky.
Richard Vincent Beliles, a Louisville lawyer known for keeping a vigorous watch on government ethics and political money often at his own expense, died Oct. 23 at Baptist Health East in Louisville. He was 90.
“He was like the lonely warrior. He did so much to make government better and paid out of his own pocket expenses to file lawsuits to accomplish that,” said Ivonne Rovira, former executive director of Common Cause/Kentucky who worked with Beliles, longtime chair of the organization. “He did not get rich working for Common Cause.”
Common Cause is a national advocacy group that describes its mission as “curbing the excessive influence of money on government and promoting fair elections,” but Beliles took up many causes, including coal-mining protests, without being partisan.
Former state Senate Majority Leader David Karem, D-Louisville, said Beliles “deserves a lot of respect. He was very gentlemanly in his push for transparency in government and went after wrong wherever he saw it.”
Tom Loftus, a former Courier Journal Frankfort reporter who became an expert in campaign finance, said Beliles was “an interesting person. He was a quiet, sometimes awkward sort of guy — the last person you would ever think to be any sort of rabble rouser in government — but he always kept a careful eye on ethics in government and campaign finances.”
Loftus said Kentucky “owes a debt of gratitude for his being a watchdog for good government for so many years.”
Loftus noted that Beliles usually supported Democrats in elections but “would go after them when he thought they were taking the wrong steps in public office.”
For example, he voted for Democrat Paul Patton in the 1995 race for governor but soon after Patton took office, Beliles called for a state investigation of Patton’s campaign finances.
He claimed the late Patton aide Danny Ross had possibly violated campaign fundraising rules by coordinating with labor unions to promote Patton in Louisville.
A grand jury in 1998 indicted Ross, Patton’s chief of staff and two Louisville Teamsters in connection with the questions Beliles raised. Patton pardoned everyone before a trial could be held.
“I liked Patton,” Beliles said, “but there were serious problems in how he won that race that needed to be examined.”
‘Fighter for transparency in government’
In 2007, Beliles filed ethics complaints against then Senate President David Williams, a Republican from Burkesville, after Williams sponsored a lunch where lobbyists were asked to help raise $50,000 in campaign funds in apparent violation of the law.
The complaint was dismissed after Williams said his aides had made a mistake.
“And all this occurred when Williams was at the peak of his power in government,” said reporter Loftus.
In 1997, Beliles filed a complaint asking the Legislative Ethics Commission to look into a free five-day trip that then-House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, took to a Costa Rican resort to study international trade agreements.
Questions arose whether cigarette maker Phillip Morris paid a nonprofit group to pay for Richards’ travel that included a jungle safari. Lawmakers cannot accept gifts from lobbyists.
Richards denied knowing of Phillip Morris’ role in his trip, and he said no one in Costa Rica lobbied him on anything. The ethics panel sided with Richards and dismissed the complaint.
“Richard Beliles was a fighter for transparency in government,” said former Louisville WHAS TV reporter Mark Hebert.
“He was also the loudest voice for Kentuckians concerned about the corrupting influence of money in politics and understood clearly the role and power of the media to shed light in dark places.”
Beliles maintained a private law practice in downtown Louisville for many years; the last 17 years of which he practiced entirely on a pro bono basis. He received two undergraduate degrees from the University of Louisville and later obtained his law degree from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.
Beliles won many civic awards, including the 2017 Citizen Award of The League of Women Voters. He was chairman of the board of directors for Wayside Christian Mission and was a former board member for five years of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and president of the KY United Nations Association.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Beliles participated in civil rights protests in downtown Louisville. He was among picketers in front of the Brown Theatre protesting the denial of public accommodations to Black citizens who were barred even from attending the play “Porgy and Bess.”
For three years in the 1960s, Beliles served as the director of organization of the Democratic Party of Jefferson County.
Beliles also was an aide to Louisville Mayor Frank W. Burke and was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Congress in 1988 against Republican Jim Bunning.
He was a Mason and a member of the Alexander Hamilton Society.
His obituary says his survivors include daughter Sherry Beliles of Louisville and son Mark Beliles (Nancy) of Charlottesville, Virginia. He is also survived by his brother David Beliles of Longboat Key, Florida.; his sister Beverly Belle-Isle of Jeffersonville, Indiana; four grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren and many relatives and friends.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at Pearson’s Funeral Home, 149 Breckenridge Lane, Louisville. Burial is to follow at Resthaven Cemetery in Louisville.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church, 318 St. Catherine St. Louisville 40203 or Wayside Christian Mission, 432 E Jefferson St., Louisville 40202.
Local News