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A state lawmaker filed a resolution Wednesday seeking an impeachment inquiry of Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney Rick Boling, of Christian County.<\/p>\n
The resolution \u2014 filed by Rep. Jason Nemes, of Louisville \u2014 cites complaints of Boling\u2019s conduct in two criminal cases. Those complaints are detailed in Nemes\u2019 resolution<\/a> and in a Dec. 7 report to the Kentucky Supreme Court<\/a> by a trial commissioner who recommended that Boling be suspended from practicing law for five years. (The supreme court case is pending.)<\/p>\n The first case stems from a letter Boling wrote in December 2019 to then-Gov. Matt Bevin seeking a pardon for Dayton Jones, of Hopkinsville, who pleaded guilty to sodomy and wanton endangerment charges in a case involving a 15-year-old boy. The boy was sodomized with a sex toy and needed surgery to save his life after his bowel was perforated. He was passed out from drinking when Jones inserted the sex toy into him.<\/p>\n Boling, at the request of Jones\u2019 grandmother, Jackie Jones, wrote to ask Bevin for a pardon. Boling relayed the grandmother\u2019s claim that Dayton Jones was convicted because of politics, stating in his letter to the governor that \u201cJones\u2019 biggest problem is that the Democratic Party controlled the prosecutor, the judge he stood before and Jones\u2019 own attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n Bevin commuted Jones\u2019 sentence from Christian Circuit Court, although he was charged again in federal court and convicted.<\/p>\n But Boling admitted this \u201chis claims were untrue and he gave no grounds to support the claims,\u201d the trial commissioner, Roderick Messer, wrote in his report recommending suspension.<\/p>\n Messer also looked into a case in which Boling was accused of misleading a jury in the arson and attempted murder case against defendant Karen Brafman. The Kentucky Supreme Court reversed Brafman\u2019s conviction, \u201cdue to flagrant prosecutorial misconduct\u201d by Boling during the April 2019 trial.<\/p>\n During a lunch recess in the trial, a conversation between Boling and Kentucky State Police Detective Scott Steward was recorded in which Boling was heard telling the police officer why he didn\u2019t ask him questions before the jury that would have revealed Brafman\u2019s intoxication during the fire that resulted in the criminal case against her. He wanted to avoid mentioning the defendant\u2019s intoxication.<\/p>\n In his report, Messer wrote, \u201cAfter lunch, the trial judge heard arguments regarding jury instruction. Defense counsel requested a voluntary intoxication instruction based on Brafman\u2019s testimony that she had been awake for five days, was taking methamphetamine and ecstasy, was drinking and had not been taking her medication. [Boling] opposed the instruction, stating there was insufficient evidence to prove voluntary intoxication. The trial court did not give the instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n Boling then told the jury during his closing argument that \u201cno one had testified that Brafman appeared to be \u2018under the influence, intoxicated, drugged or anything,\u2019\u201d Messer wrote. \u201c[Boling] went on to tell the jury that neither Detective Steward nor any another [sic] officer said Brafman appeared to be intoxicated.\u201d<\/p>\n Boling was the second commonwealth\u2019s attorney named this week in a resolution from Nemes seeking impeachment. The other prosecutor is Ronnie Goldy Jr., who serves in Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties.<\/p>\n Goldy \u201cexchanged hundreds of Facebook messages with a defendant, allegedly promising to do favors in court in exchange for nude images of her,\u201d the Louisville Courier-Journal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Kentucky Supreme Court suspended Goldy from practicing law in September but the court said he could only be removed from office through impeachment by the Kentucky legislature, the Courier-Journal wrote.<\/p>\n Both Boling and Goldy were previously expelled<\/a> from the Kentucky Commonwealth\u2019s Attorneys\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n The impeachment resolutions will go to a committee to determine if there is sufficient reason to go into impeachment proceedings. If the committee agrees to forward a case, the House would vote on impeachment and send it to the Senate for trial.<\/p>\n Nemes chairs the House Impeachment Committee, according to his Legislative Research Commission profile.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by the Hoptown Chronicle<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n