Jason Smith Former Kentucky Mavericks owner

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Former Kentucky Mavericks owner Jason Smith was indicted Wednesday by a Warren County grand jury on six felony counts of passing bad checks, charges stemming from Smith’s work with the fledgling American Basketball Association franchise.

Smith is charged with six counts of theft by deception over $300, said Chris Cohron, commonwealth’s attorney for Warren County.

“The six checks were for in excess of $110,000,” Cohron said.

The case originated from the bad check division of the Warren County Attorney’s Office. The investigation is still active and more charges are possible, he said.

Reached by cell phone this morning, Smith angrily contested the total amount of the checks as cited by Cohron. Smith, who in an e-mail to the Daily News admitted to writing bad checks earlier this month, said he’s “guilty of certain amount, but not $110,000,” and that people are “coming out of the woodwork” and claiming to be owed money.

“There is no way at all that I owe that much money to people in Warren County,” Smith said from Germantown, Tenn., near his hometown of Memphis. “I don’t care how long they hold me, they’re not going to get $110,000 out of me. They can hold me for 90 years and they’ll never get it out of me. I will sit in this cell and I’ll rot. I will never pay that much money, and I mean that. I will sit in there and I will rot.”

Smith said he believes he wrote no more than $40,000 in bad checks to Warren County businesses, and that “they will have to show me in writing where I signed my name to these checks” before he believes the $110,000 figure.

A notice to appear will be filed for Smith to appear in court. No warrant has been issued for his arrest, Cohron said.

Smith said he will cooperate with authorities if a warrant is issued, but also said that some of his goodwill has been soured by the indictment.

Smith said he planned to file a lawsuit today or Friday against “numerous people in Bowling Green, including possibly the mayor of Bowling Green,” for “slandering” him and for falsely claiming to be owed money. He declined to reveal all the names targeted in his possible filing.

Smith announced in June the founding of the Mavericks. The team originally hoped to play its inaugural season in Bowling Green, but later moved its 15-game home schedule to the Sportscenter in Owensboro after a deal could not be reached with Western Kentucky University to use E.A. Diddle Arena.

After Smith’s ouster, the franchise was taken over by Jay Sills, who once was a partner in Smith’s S&A Inc., the company that owned the Mavericks.