Kentucky Supreme Court moves to suspend prosecutor for 3 cases of misconduct
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Scandal-plagued Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling has been ordered by the Kentucky Supreme Court to show why he shouldn’t be suspended from practicing law for three episodes of professional misconduct.
The court on Friday gave Boling 20 days to respond and said negotiated sanctions for prior incidents were too lenient.
In the unanimous order signed by Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr., the court said it decided to act after it learned a judge recently dismissed an indictment because of Boling’s prosecutorial misconduct during a grand jury proceeding.
The Courier Journal reported this week that a judge dropped a manslaughter charge against a defendant on the grounds that Boling "knowingly or intentionally" presented false and misleading information to the grand jury that indicted him.
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The Supreme Court noted that in his first disciplinary case in 2020, Bowling wrote a letter on his office letterhead asking then-Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon Dayton Jones for sodomizing an unconscious boy.
The court noted that Boling questioned the integrity of the former prosecutor, the Christian Circuit Court judge who presided over the case and Jones' defense counsel.
The court said it found the proposed discipline in that case — a 60-day suspension probated for one year — "woefully inadequate" because the misconduct occurred in Boling’s role as an elected prosecutor and because the letter "undoubtedly conveyed" to Bevin that Boling believed Jones deserved the pardon.
The court remanded the case to the Office of Bar Counsel for further proceedings.
The Supreme Court said that about six months later, Boling was the subject of a second complaint for misconduct in the trial of Karen Brafman on charges of arson and attempted murder.
The court reversed her conviction and life sentence and ordered a new trial.
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The court found Boling was aware of evidence Brafman was intoxicated at the time of the crime but argued against an intoxication jury instruction on the grounds no such evidence existed.
The court said that rendered the verdict fundamentally unfair.
This time Boling proposed a 120-day suspension, with 60 days to serve, to resolve both cases. But the court rejected it as inadequate.
The court said a hearing was set for August on the two matters, but now, with third instance of misconduct, "we need not wait for action by the Inquiry Commission or Bar Counsel to act for the protection of the public."
Citing in part Boling’s status as an elected official, the court ordered him to show why he shouldn’t be suspended from practicing law.
He did not respond to an email asking if he would contest the suspension.
Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky prosecutor faces suspension for 3 misconduct charges
