The Kentucky Supreme Court has issued a show-cause order to determine if the law license of Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling should be suspended.
The order was signed by Chief Justice John Minton on Friday. It said an apparent third instance of professional misconduct and a delay in negotiating an agreed sanction on the previous two incidents has led the Court to not wait for any Kentucky Bar Association disciplinary action. Boling has 20 days to respond to the Supreme Court order showing why he should not be temporarily suspended from practicing law.
Friday’s order comes days after Circuit Judge Andrew Self dismissed a second-degree manslaughter charge against Seth Henderson, who was charged in an overdose death case. Henderson’s attorney, Olivia Adams, argued that Boling had falsified his testimony to the grand jury regarding text messages. During the Monday hearing, Boling admitted he didn’t look at the discovery page by page because it was Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jared Smith’s case. He added in hindsight, it probably would have been more appropriate to indict Henderson for drug trafficking than manslaughter.
After hearing arguments based on testimony from the Christian County sheriff’s detectives and a review of the grand jury proceeding, Judge Self granted the motion to dismiss the indictment and found that Boling had provided false or misleading information to the grand jury that led to the indictment.
The Supreme Court has asked Judge Self to provide them a report of Boling’s conduct to the grand jury. They also asked any other Christian County judge that has knowledge of Boling’s conduct to also file a report within 20 days.
Two incidents regarding Boling’s conduct in previous cases were also referenced in the order. The Kentucky Bar Association’s Inquiry Commission, an independent body appointed by the Supreme Court to receive and process complaints from any source which allege professional misconduct by lawyers, has investigated both of them.
The Inquiry Commission issued a complaint against Boling in February 2020 concerning a letter Boling wrote on Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney letterhead to then-Governor Matt Bevin concerning a pardon request for Dayton Jones, who was convicted of sexual assault. The Inquiry Commission said Boling questioned the integrity of former prosecutor Lynn Pryor, the judge in the case, and Jones’ defense counsel. Bevin commuted Jones’ sentence and the order said Boling’s letter received extensive media attention.
After the letter was made public, Boling said he reached an informal agreement with Judge Self and Judge John Atkins to not appear in the courthouse for a period of time.
A proposed 60-day suspension for Boling, probated for one year, was considered woefully inadequate by the Supreme Court, which rejected the punishment and remanded it back to the Commission for further proceedings.
Six months later, the Inquiry Commission initiated a second complaint against Boling in the case regarding Karen Brafman who was charged with two counts of arson and six counts of attempted murder. The Supreme Court reversed a circuit court jury’s conviction in December 2020 due to Boling’s misconduct. The reversal order said Boling was personally aware of evidence that Brafman was intoxicated and argued to the court that evidence of her intoxication did not exist.
A 120-day suspension, with 60 days to serve and 60 days probated, for his conduct in the Brafman case was again rejected by the Supreme Court which called the punishment inadequate.
Over the past year, extensions and delays were granted for Boling and the Bar Counsel to reach an agreement on his punishment, similar to a plea agreement that prosecutors and defense attorneys hammer out in criminal court.
The Supreme Court called the charges against Boling serious and said they will not wait for the Bar Counsel and Boling to reach an agreement on the sanctions.
