Arguments will be heard next month in Christian Circuit Court on whether or not to dismiss a perjury charge against Hopkinsville Police Lt. Jefferson Alexander.
Eric Eaton filed a motion to dismiss the charge or to disqualify Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling from prosecuting the case if it’s not dismissed.
Boling has since taken action to recuse himself from the case to make way for a special prosecutor, but Eaton argued that the facts of the case merit a complete dismissal.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jerad Smith asked for the dismissal arguments to be continued until a time when a special prosecutor could be available.
Despite Eaton’s objections, Judge John Atkins vacated the trial set a hearing for March 16 to hear arguments on the dismissal motion.
As previously reported, a grand jury indictment for first-degree perjury stems from an FBI investigation which brought allegations that on August 17th, 2012, Lt. Alexander gave false testimony on three occasions when he was the only sworn witness before a grand jury that indicted former Hopkinsville City Councilmember Ann Cherry on charges of tampering with a witness, tampering with public records, and second-degree official misconduct.
The Hopkinsville Police Department alleged Cherry hindered their investigation into the ‘Southside Prowler’ case by using her official capacity as a member of council.
Cherry accepted a deal in 2013 that required her to step down from her council position and to never run for election to council or for mayor of Hopkinsville in the future. The charges were dropped under the agreement.
Boling brought the case against Alexander to the grand jury in March of last year, but hasn’t appeared in Christian Circuit Court since news broke last month that he wrote a controversial letter to former Governor Matt Bevin on behalf of convicted sex offender Dayton Jones as Jones sought a pardon. Boling accused former Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor and others in the court system of conspiring against Jones for political reasons in the letter.
He has since apologized for the letter and said he doesn’t believe the local court system is politically driven.