Judge Rules: No Time For Moonshine

A man convicted of running a moonshine operation in Franklin County will not serve any time behind bars for now. A county circuit court judge yesterday handed 44-year-old Lester Hodge of Wirtz an eight-year suspended sentence and suspended all fines except for one-thousand-dollars. Hodge, who had no previous criminal record, had pled guilty in November to a pair of felonies – illegal manufacture of alcohol and possession of a sawed-off shotgun.