A resolution has been filed in the Kentucky House to begin impeachment proceedings against Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling.
The resolution filed by Representative Jason Nemes calls for an impeachment inquiry and for a special House committee to consider impeaching Boling and 21st Judicial Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronnie Goldy, Jr.
If the committee recommends going forward with impeachment, it can draft articles of impeachment to be taken up by the full House. If the House votes to impeach Boling, he would then be tried in the Senate, where a conviction would require a vote of at least two-thirds of the senators present.
Boling wrote a letter containing information he has since admitted was false in December of 2019 when he advocated to then-governor Matt Bevin on behalf of convicted sex offender Dayton Jones as he sought a pardon or commutation. Bevin granted Jones a commutation of his sentence to time served in the final hours of his administration.
Jones, who was one of four suspects who took a plea deal for the 2015 sexual assault of a 15-year old boy at a party on Lafayette Road, later pled guilty to child porn-related charges in federal court for the video-recording of the crime which he posted on social media. That deal came with an eight-year sentence.
In the arson and attempted murder case against Karen Brafman, the Supreme Court overturned a conviction at trial due to prosecutorial misconduct. Courtroom audio recording surfaced of Boling and a Kentucky State Police Arson Investigator acknowledging Brafman had been under the influence of a substance at the time she set an occupied mobile home on fire, despite him opposing a voluntary intoxication defense at trial.
Brafman initially received a life sentence, but later accepted a plea deal that came with a sentence of 20 years.
Following an all-day hearing recently in Hopkinsville, a trial commissioner for the Kentucky Bar Association recommended that Boling’s license to practice law be suspended for five years. He was given time to appeal to the KBA Board of Governors and the ultimate decision on that matter will be in the hands of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Boling’s lone assistant commonwealth’s attorney—Jerad Smith—has put in his notice to resign effective January 15. He says he’s leaving to take a position in the Christian County Attorney’s Office.
Goldy, who is the lead prosecutor in four Eastern Kentucky counties, reportedly promised favorable treatment in court to a defendant for nude images of her.
He has already been suspended from practicing law by the Kentucky Supreme Court, but the court said the authority to remove Goldy from office lies solely in the hands of the General Assembly.