Dozens of grand jury indictments in Central Kentucky could be dismissed following AG probe

The Kentucky Attorney General's Office has nearly concluded its investigations of more than 160 indictments in a Central Kentucky judicial district, recommending that many be dismissed because there were likely too many grand jurors deliberating on the cases.

Though the attorney general's office has not yet filed all of its investigative reports to each case, the head of the local public defender's office says "a large majority" of those filed found it was probable more than 12 grand jurors participated in the proceedings and strongly recommended dismissal of the indictment.

Among those recommended for dismissal are two murder indictments in Scott and Bourbon counties, as well as a child rape indictment in Woodford County — all Class A felonies.

A Courier Journal review of a dozen of these attorney general reports found they "strongly" recommended Commonwealth's Attorney Sharon Muse Johnson of the 14th Circuit dismiss the indictments and then determine whether to seek new indictments "using a grand jury whose composition conforms to the requirements of the Kentucky Constitution and Kentucky law."

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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office kicked off its investigation of possible prosecutorial errors in Muse Johnson's office in early March, following a complaint filed by a former judge in the district and an initial investigation by Circuit Judge Jeremy Mattox found too many grand jurors deliberating and voting on indictments.

Because Kentucky law requires only nine votes to indict, impaneling more than the 12 required grand jurors increases the odds of obtaining an indictment.

In a previous letter to Cameron and Kentucky Supreme Court Justice John Minton saying she welcomed any investigation, Muse Johnson conceded that some sessions of her grand juries had both 12 grand jurors and additional alternate grand jurors remaining in the room for deliberations, which she wrote was "based on my interpretations" of the rules.

Karema Eldahan — the directing attorney for the public defender's office in Georgetown — told The Courier Journal a large majority of the attorney general reports filed for her clients' cases found it reasonable to conclude that more than 12 grand jurors participated in the indictments, recommending dismissals.

These include two clients of the public defender's office that were indicted for murder: Tyre Conner, charged in the 2020 killing of former star high school athlete Jekobi Wells in Bourbon County; and Cassandra Carson, indicted in Scott County in 2019 in connection to the killing of her boyfriend, Matthew Turner.

Brad Gordon, an attorney in the Georgetown public defender's office, filed motions Wednesday for both of his clients seeking for Mattox to dismiss the indictments and immediately free Conner and Carson from custody.

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At a hearing Monday in Scott Circuit Court, Eldahan said Mattox gave both her and Muse Johnson a week to file briefs responding to her oral motion to dismiss the indictment of Carson, not indicating how long it would take him to rule.

Eldahan also noted that an assistant attorney general at the hearing said for each indictment recommended for dismissal due to having too many grand jurors, this would also invalidate every other indictment returned by the same grand jury that day.

Reviewing two of her clients' recommendations for dismissal, Eldahan noted those grand juries returned a total of 34 indictments on those days, meaning they should all now be invalid — with those dismissals soon to multiply rapidly.

"When you add up three-plus years of cases in three counties, I would assume we're close to over 1,000 indictments," Eldahan said.

"I personally find the amount of time, expense, waste and massive backlog this will cause — and the flagrant disregard for the law in the government's attempt to take liberties and freedoms from individuals — very disturbing."

According to WKYT-TV in Lexington, Eldahan wasn't the only one with harsh criticism of Muse Johnson this week, as Mattox in a Wednesday hearing in Woodford Circuit Court laid the blame for the mess ahead at her feet.

“If this had been done right the first time, we wouldn’t have to be doing all this," Mattox said. "I’m tired of you coming to court and insinuating that it’s somebody else’s fault other than yours that all this is going on… The fact is, it wasn’t done correctly the first time. We should not be doing all this and the only person responsible is you.”

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Attorney general spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn told The Courier Journal in an email that its Special Prosecutions Unit has concluded most of its investigations of 163 indictments — including 104 in Scott County, 38 in Bourbon County and 21 in Woodford County — with "a few" ongoing.

"Our Special Prosecutions Unit is now working to review the findings and prepare reports for each of these cases, on a case by case basis," Kuhn said.

Of the two grand jury indictments investigated by Mattox before the attorney general office's involvements — which also found more than 12 grand jurors participated — one individual charged with murder, Joseph Hicks, was reindicted and remains incarcerated.

The other defendant, Isaiah Beasley, had his complicity-to-murder indictment dismissed — a Class A felony with a possible 20 years-to-life sentence — but was reindicted on a much lesser charge of facilitation to commit murder, a Class D felony. He remains incarcerated due to a pending first degree robbery indictment.

Of the 10 other attorney general reports reviewed by The Courier Journal recommending the dismissal of an indictment, the charges ranged from low-level theft and drug possession, all the way to first degree rape of a child under 12 years old, a Class A felony.

Rob Johnson, an assistant prosecutor in the Commonwealth's Attorney office of the same 14th Circuit, married Muse Johnson last year and is currently running for the open judicial seat in the same district.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Errors could invalidate several indictments after Kentucky AG probe