Kentucky prosecutor embroiled in Matt Bevin clemency scandal gets in trouble again

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky commonwealth’s attorney blasted two years ago for asking then-Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon a felon convicted of a brutal sodomy is in hot water again.

A Christian Circuit Court judge dismissed a manslaughter charge Monday against a defendant on the grounds that Christian Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling “knowingly or intentionally” presented false and misleading information to a grand jury.

The Kentucky Supreme Court, noting it was the third episode of misconduct by Boling, on Friday gave him 20 days to show why he shouldn't be temporarily suspended from practicing law.

Boling was banned from the courthouse in Christian County in 2020 after he wrote a letter pleading for clemency for Dayton Jones, who was convicted of sodomizing an unconscious teen with a sex toy.

Boling admitted he lied about a claim that the circuit judge who tried Jones targeted him in a political vendetta against Jones' grandparents, who gave $3,000 to Boling’s campaign.

He also conceded he made a “monumental mistake” in seeking clemency for Jones for the crime, in which the victim, a 15-year-old boy, nearly died.

Bevin commuted Jones' sentence but he was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2020 and pleaded guilty to the production of child pornography, for which he is set to be sentenced on May 17.

Previously on Matt Bevin: Matt Bevin said only co-defendants implicated Dayton Jones in brutal sodomy. He was wrong

The commutation of Jones' sentence ignited a furor in Western Kentucky because of the gruesome nature of the crime and Boling's role in helping procure it.

Jones was one of 670 offenders to whom Bevin granted clemency before he left office after losing re-election to then-Attorney General Andy Beshear.

In the case this week, Judge Andrew Self found Boling presented misleading information to a grand jury that indicted Seth Henderson on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in an overdose death.

Self ordered Henderson freed. He said Boling’s office could seek another indictment but “strongly advised” that Boling not present the case.

Henderson was charged with providing narcotics to a co-defendant, Joshua Long, who in turn gave them to his girlfriend, Corbin Bowling, who died from a fatal overdose of fentanyl.

Boling told the grand jury that Henderson had sent a text message to Long saying, "Y'all be careful man and don’t let her take that whole thing."

But Boling’s office was later forced to admit the cell phone to which the text was sent did not belong to Long.

At a hearing Monday before Self, Boling admitted he didn’t look at the discovery evidence page by page because it was an assistant prosecutor’s case, according to WKDZ Radio in Cadiz, which first reported the story.

In court papers, Boling said the “parties to the text chain may have been misconstrued or misinterpreted, but the text chain itself was not fabricated.”

But Self found Boling intentionally presented false and misleading information to the grand jury and it “substantially influenced” the decision to indict Henderson.

Before hanging up on a reporter, Boling declined to answer questions about whether his office will appeal or seek another indictment.

Circuit Judge John Atkins said in an email that Boling’s banishment from the courthouse ended last summer.

Other prosecutors, including the late Fayette Commonwealth’s attorney, Ray Larson, condemned Boling for asking for clemency and continuing to draw his $141,374 salary while he was banned.

In one Facebook post, Larson said Boling had "no business being a prosecutor" and in another posted, "SHAME - SHAME - SHAME.”

Self told The Courier Journal last year the ban on Boling would continue until Kentucky Bar Association complaints against him were resolved.

More: Kentucky judge removed for misconduct vows to seek reelection. Why the law won't stop her

Boling was harshly criticized in a third case as well.

In a unanimous opinion in December 2020, the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed a conviction for arson and attempted murder Boling won in 2018 on the grounds he misrepresented facts to the jury.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Minton Jr. said Boling falsely suggested no evidence existed that defendant Karen Brafman was intoxicated at the time of the offenses.

In fact, the court said, during a lunchtime recess in Brafman's trial, a detective told Boling in a recorded conversation Brafman was “out of her fricking mind.”

The court said a video showed Boling and the detective laughing as they talked about how they had kept the information from the jury.

Boling is licensed in good standing by the Kentucky Bar Association.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky prosecutor in hot water over Bevin pardon trouble once more