After months of speculation and a leaked FBI affidavit, a federal grand jury Wednesday indicted road contractor Leonard Lawson, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert, and Lawson aide Brian Billings on highway contract bid-rigging allegations.

Nighbert, 57, and Lawson, 69, were indicted on six counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy of theft from government charges while Billings was indicted on three. Jim Rummage, a former Transportation Cabinet engineer who alleges Nighbert and Lawson conspired to provide Lawson internal bid estimates on projects on which Lawson’s companies bid, was not indicted. Rummage apparently taped conversations with Lawson and Billings, portions of which are quoted in the 22-page indictment.

Prosecutors said more indictments may follow. Rummage’s attorney, Marc Murphy of Stites and Harbison in Louisville, said Rummage was not granted immunity, although the indictment quotes Rummage telling Lawson at one point that he was considering cooperating with investigators in exchange for immunity.

Attorneys for Nighbert and Lawson denied their clients are guilty of anything.

The indictments allege Lawson directed Nighbert to secure from Rummage internal bid estimates. By obtaining those in advance, a single contractor might submit a higher bid but stay below the ceiling the cabinet routinely uses to evaluate bids. That ceiling is 7 percent over internal bid estimates.

It also alleges Lawson paid Rummage $5,000 on four separate occasions in exchange for the information and used a utilities management company, UMG of Pikeville and Corbin, to reward Nighbert. Nighbert went to work for UMG this year at a salary of $125,000 a year and the cost of a vehicle. The indictment alleges his employment with UMG was a sham to disguise payments from Lawson. No UMG officials are named in the indictments.

The indictments allege that eight times between June 2006 and August 2007 Rummage provided bid estimates either directly to Lawson or through Nighbert. They include quotations from conversations between Lawson and Rummage in which Lawson discusses what attorney Rummage should retain and taking the Fifth Amendment before the grand jury. Rummage’s side of the conversations are not quoted.

In one, Lawson tells Rummage investigators are “scaring the hell out of you is what they’re doing – what you need to do is – is call JW (Lawson’s unnamed attorney, according to the indictment) and, uh, tell him what’s going on . . . and that ain’t gonna cost ya nothing.”

Lawson also said, “But Jim, you need to stick with the truth that you’ve already told everybody,” and says he doesn’t care if investigators are after “me because no way that Nighbert or any of ’em can ever say I gave ’em money.”

The indictment alleges Billings, acting on behalf of Lawson, met with Rummage on multiple occasions in restaurant parking lots, making hand signals for Rummage not to speak – presumably because he feared he was being taped – and submitting questions to Rummage in writing.

Lawson’s attorney, Larry Mackey of Barnes and Thornburg of Indianapolis, issued a statement: “We have cooperated with the federal investigation and conducted our own. There is simply no credible evidence that Leonard Lawson violated any laws.”

Mackey and Mann complained that information from the grand jury was improperly leaked to reporters.

“The indictment is evidence of nothing,” Mackey’s statement continued. “In time, evidence will show that Leonard Lawson committed no crime and should have never been charged. Today’s indictment does not excuse the prosecution’s earlier leaks of grand jury information. Worse yet, the earlier leaks have only destroyed Mr. Lawson’s right to a fair trial.”

Mann, Nighbert’s attorney, contacted by phone after the indictments were issued, said he hadn’t then seen them.

“I’ve not been given a copy. I learned about it at lunch when I started getting telephone calls from reporters.”