Wednesday, June 29, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...6-30-'11
It took a Pike County jury nearly 12 hours Wednesday to convict Harold Scott of reckless homicide in the death of Sonny Charles who was shot last September in Phelps. At one point, jurors sent out a note saying they were a hung jury, but then a few minutes later, they sent out another note saying they had reached a verdict. During the trial, Scott claimed he shot Charles in self-defense. Judge Eddy Coleman has to be in Frankfort on Thursday, so the penalty phase is scheduled for Friday. Scott is also facing a weapons charge that will be part of the proceedings on Friday.
- State officials say 46 year old David Partin of Pineville died while working at the Manalapan Mining Co.'s P-1 mine in Pathfork in Harlan County around 11:50 A.M. EDT Wednesday. A statement from the state's Energy and Environment Cabinet says preliminary reports show the miner was killed in a roof fall. The mine has been closed, and officials from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing are investigating the incident. It is the second fatality at a mine in Kentucky this year. Robert L. Cook of Inez died in March when he was pinned between a continuous miner boom and a mine wall at a mine in Martin County.
Former state Representative and confessed murderer Steve Nunn is eligible to get about $28,210 a year in state retirement benefits, plus cost-of-living increases, once he turns 62. Kentucky law does not allow the pension benefits of state lawmakers to be withheld unless they commit a crime while in office. It's doubtful that Nunn's state benefits can be stopped now, but the chairmen of the House and Senate state government committees say they want to study the issue.
- Kentucky State Police say, Tuesday evening, Sarah Melton, 42, fired a shotgun, injuring her brother, Bill Couch and killing Couch's girlfriend, Cindy Caudill, at a home on Browns Fork Road in Hazard. Melton is in the Kentucky River Regional Jail facing charges of murder and attempted murder. Couch remains at UK Hospital.
- The Williamsburg Police Department, Whitley County Sheriff's Department, Kentucky State Police and the Jellico Police Department joint task force on drugs conducted a drug roundup Wednesday morning. Thirteen people were arrested throughout the county and downtown Williamsburg and lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center. Police are actively looking to serve 7 more arrest warrants. Three suspects are out of the state. Authorities have contacted officials in those states to arrest them.
1. David Centers
2. Roger Keith
3. Ralph Rains
4. Ronald Ball
5. Lois Jones Vanover
6. Anita Brown
7. Scott Jones
8. Johnny Hubbard
9. Jeff Combs
10. Connie Reeves
11. Christy Stephens
12. John Kanter
13. Raymond Douglas
- Two arrests have been made in the death of Lafe Humble, an Owen County, Kentucky man found dead in a burning truck in San Bernadino, California on June 17th. Police in California arrested Gerald Lee Nance last Friday and Lori Anne Whipple was arrested Monday in Oro Grande, California. Police in San Bernadino say Hunble was a patron at a bar where Whipple worked. Whipple gave Humble a ride home, and that's when police say Whipple and Nance robbed and killed him. Police say blunt force trauma was the cause of Humble's death. Humble's body will be brought back to Kentucky to be buried in Gallatin County.
During the past five weeks, the Kentucky attorney general's office has received four complaints from people who say they lost money as victims of a "grandparent scam." The Office of Consumer Protection has received nearly a dozen complaints this year from victims of the hoax who reported losing nearly $40,000 after people falsely claiming to be their grandchildren called asking for money. The caller asks that money be sent through a money-transfer service.
- Darrell Patrick, a suspended North Magoffin Elementary teacher, will be re-arraigned and is expected to change his plea next month in federal court. Patrick originally pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in February. A federal indictment accuses him of selling OxyCodone in 2009 and having more than 100 guns.
- Hardin County Circuit Judge Kelly Mark Easton dismissed murder charges Wednesday against former Fort Campbell soldier Brent Burke but did not order him freed. Easton left the door open for charges to be brought back in the future if prosecutors see fit. Burke has been tried four times in the 2007 shooting deaths of his estranged wife, Tracy Burke, and her former mother-in-law, Karen Comer, in Rineyville in Hardin County. There have been two mistrials and two hung juries. Burke will be turned over to the Judge Advocate General at Fort Campbell. Easton's order does not say why military authorities requested custody of Burke, a sergeant in the Army.
- A team of environmental groups says two coal companies that were fined in Kentucky last year for violations of the Clean Water Act continue to break the federal law. The groups say ICG and Frasure Creek Mining exceeded the limits of pollution discharge allowed under law more than 4,000 times in the first three months of 2011. They made the allegations Tuesday in intent-to-sue letters required by the Clean Water Act. Last year, the environmental groups took a similar action against the coal operators, but never filed suit because Kentucky officials and the companies reached a $660,000 settlement. The environmental groups are challenging the settlement in court, saying it's not enough. Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Kentucky Riverkeeper and New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance say they filed notices this week to force the companies to comply with federal law.
Pulaski County Judge-Executive Barty Bullock says the county will seek a loan through the Kentucky Association of Counties to help pay half of the nearly $457,000 in legal bills from a long court battle over hanging the Ten Commandments in government buildings. The battle began in 1999 when the American Civil Liberties Union and citizens sued officials in Pulaski, McCreary and other counties contending that hanging the Ten Commandments in government buildings was unconstitutional. In 2005, the case went to the Supreme Court, which said the display had a predominantly religious purpose and upheld a ban on it. There were further hearings after the counties altered the displays.
- Republican Senators Damon Thayer of Georgetown and Democratic Representative Mike Cherry of Princeton, co-chairmen of the Joint Committee on State Government, have failed in the past in their efforts to get pension reforms through the General Assembly. Thayer and Cherry say a newly released audit that criticizes oversight of the state's $13 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems pension fund could provide what's needed to get the legislature to act when it convenes in January. The retirement plan isn't in immediate danger of collapsing, but it has been consistently underfunded, a point that state Auditor Crit Luallen made to lawmakers on Wednesday. Luallen says the long-term viability of the retirement system has been dramatically impacted by the state's consistent underfunding of its employer contributions since 2003.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:48 PM 
