By Jillian Ogawa
jogawa@herald-leader.com
A Bourbon County grand jury has indicted the Bourbon County jailer and his deputy on a number of charges, including some stemming from allegations that staffers tampered with documents related to the death of an inmate.
Jailer Tony Horn has been charged with two counts of tampering with public records, a class D felony, and two counts of first-degree official misconduct, a class A misdemeanor. Chief Deputy Jailer Sandy Dotson has been charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence, a class D felony, and one count of official misconduct.
Tuesday’s indictments come nearly a month after state police executed a search warrant at the jail.
At the time, police said they were investigating narcotics “improperly stored or held”; reports that inmates had a cell phone and were “making inappropriate phone calls while on work release”; and the circumstances surrounding the death of Daniel Trimble, an inmate who committed suicide in February.
The indictment says Horn ordered the destruction of e-mails after Trimble’s death with “the intent to impair the e-mails’ availability for use in the official proceeding.”
Horn faxed a fabricated document to the Department of Corrections in February “believing that an official proceeding was pending,” according to the indictment.
It also says that on April 27 Horn did not investigate or report to the Department of Corrections when he was told of the disappearance of 30 methadone pills. And, on July 16, Horn allowed an inmate who was charged with first-degree robbery to be on work release without a court order.
Dotson is accused of ordering a deputy jailer to create a false observation call record document after the death of an inmate in February. She is also accused of concealing a file related to the death investigation. Dotson was also failing to investigate or report the disappearance of methadone pills.
Neither Dotson nor Horn could be reached for comment.
A supervisor at the jail said Dotson has been on vacation for the past week. Horn was not at the jail.
Their employment status was unclear.
Horn and Dotson are scheduled to appear in Bourbon Circuit Court at 1 p.m. Oct. 14.
So much for Tony Horn being elected with his campaign slogan of being honest and going to change the jail, run it proper.
stupid crook!
alot of the cops,jailers,doctors,judges are crooked!
they abuse their positions and think they are untouchable…i say ….lock them in the same cage that the inmate committed suicide in and let em stay there to dwell on their shady ways.
is everyone in kentucky a damn pill head?
what the hell is wrong with this damn state???????????????
It is very sad that this family never cared enough to get this young man the help that he needed. It is also very sad that families like this always want to point and blame. How many times did this man attempt to kill himself? Now two good people will have their lives destroyed mostly due to a poor family trying to get rich through a lawsuit.
It is a shame that this took place. The victim had a medical
disorder that required daily medication. It has been said that this man did not get his medication which could have played a part in his
suicide. Families seek closure not blame and they are trying to determine what did in fact happen to this loved one. Any one in this situation would question what happened, esp. when there has been other allegations as to what was allowed in the jail facility. I mean Why when he asked for a doctors visit-he was denied one. When you are elected into a office you are responsible and must take all precautions to protect yourself and those entrusted in your care. Hiding paperwork and deleting important medical history from this mans file is not only a danger to the inmate but to the jailer as well,he could loose his job, endander other inmates, endanger his
and his staff. It was all handled wrong. This jailer must have not know how an actual jail system works.