Police and courts in the Lexington, Ky., area
An attorney from Shelbyville has filed suit against a bank for not noticing that his secretary was embezzling millions of dollars from him.
Mark D. Dean accuses Commonwealth Bank of violation of a Kentucky Uniform Commercial Code, as well as aiding and abetting fraud and illegal activity and breach of duty of ordinary care.
Read more in the Shelbyville News-Sentinel.
By Joe Biesk
Associated Press
FRANKFORT — People caught driving drunk just once could be forced to install breath-alcohol monitoring devices in their cars, as Kentucky lawmakers consider toughening the state’s DUI laws.
House lawmakers are considering proposals aimed at increasing the use of ignition locks, which require people to prove they’re not drunk by blowing into a device before starting their vehicles. Another plan would also decrease the current blood-alcohol level that triggers an aggravating factor in DUI sentencing.
“The problem is we’ve got people that are driving 100 times before they even get caught drinking and driving,” said state Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder. “A lot of these people re-offend, and this would curtail them from using their car while they’re out drinking and driving. There’s a tremendous call for this.”
By Lisa King
The man who was wanted for questioning in Wednesday night’s shooting of Joel Mena, 17, is now wanted for murder.
Shelbyville Police said Friday that a murder warrant has been issued for Salomon Caballero Gomez, who they believe gunned down Mena in the middle in Shelbyville Wednesday night.
Police say Gomez should be considered armed.
Read more in the Shelbyville Sentinel-News.
BOYD COUNTY, Ky. (WSAZ) — Deputies made a dent in the out of state drug trade Sunday.
The Boyd County Sheriff’s Department says it caught Jim Clapper during a search of a house in Ashland. He’s from Pompano Beach, Florida.
Brian Smith
Register News Writer
The Berea man accused of stealing a golf cart from St. Joseph-Berea hospital by having his son drive it back to their home pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking, obscuring the identity of a machine and unlawful transaction with a minor charges Thursday.
Danny J. Thacker, 35, will serve two years in prison for the Nov. 7 theft in which Thacker’s 15-year-old son drove the golf cart to their home on KY 1016 after Thacker took the cart from the hospital.
Read the full story at the Richmond Register.
Johnny Vaughn, the Laurel County man arrested late last year for allegedly shooting his neighbor following an argument, was indicted on attempted murder and assault charges by a grand jury Friday in Laurel County Circuit Court.
Vaughn, 35, of Sally’s Branch Road in London, is charged with the Dec. 20, 2008 shooting of neighbor Georgiana Cowden.
For more, go the the Corbin Times Tribune
By Brandon Ortiz
bortiz@herald-leader.com
A Jessamine County man was charged Monday with murder and burglary in connection with the beating death of a Carlisle woman who was staying at a relative’s farm off Paris Pike in Lexington.
Gary T. Stone, 31, was charged Monday with murder, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. He was being held in the Jessamine County jail.
Stone was arrested Saturday morning in Jessamine County on an unrelated arrest warrant. Lexington police obtained a murder warrant on Monday.
Stone is accused of fatally beating Pauline Mastin, 43, who was staying at a relatives home at 567 Muir Station Road, the location of Fair Trial Farm.
Lt. James Curless said a security guard at a neighboring farm saw a vehicle leaving Fair Trial Farm some time after 4:30 a.m. Since it’s odd for a vehicle to be out at that hour, the guard wrote down a description of the vehicle and its license plate number.
“It gave us a significant investigative lead,” Curless said.
Curless said the suspect broke into the home and assaulted Mastin and her brother, farm manager Bart Mastin.
Bart Mastin was taken to the University of Kentucky hospital with serious but not life- threatening injuries.
Curless called Pauline Mastin “a truly innocent victim.”
Map of 2009 homicides.
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James Aaron Clark, 27, of Shelbyville, who confessed to setting nine house fires, was indicted Wednesday for first and second-degree arson and criminal mischief.
Clark, arrested in October after his confession, was indicted on one count of first-degree arson, a felony that carries a penalty of 20 years to life, three counts of second-degree arson, also a felony, one count of first-degree criminal mischief and three counts of third-degree criminal, charges which were also related to the fires.
Read more in the Shelby News-Sentinel
A local man has been indicted on drug charges the day he was shock probated from jail on the same charges.
Melvin Anthony, 51, 106 Quachita Trail was in a car stopped by Frankfort police Dec. 13 with cocaine in his possession when he allegedly tried to throw away the drugs, prosecutors say.
Read more at the Frankfort State Journal
By Steve Lannen
slannen@herald-leader.com
A Lexington-Fayette jail employee says she is being retaliated against because she brought concerns about a courts employee with a criminal record to the attention of police and prosecutors.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday against Lexington’s Urban County Government in Fayette Circuit Court, Doris Zirbes states she was placed on administrative leave earlier this week and is the subject of a jail internal affairs investigation.
She states that jail officials violated the whistle blower statute because the discipline against her is retaliation for informing police and prosecutors that a state Administrative Office of the Courts pre-trial officer, who works in the same part of the jail as Zirbes, has a lengthy criminal record and regularly has access to law enforcement databases.
Zirbes’ lawsuit states that Francis Baker, who has multiple convictions dating to 1981 and was on parole as recently as August, improperly has access to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center and the Law Enforcement Information Network of Kentucky databases. The information is used to research criminal records of inmates and make decisions about setting bonds.
AOC spokeswoman Leigh Anne Hiatt confirmed that Baker is an employee and said he is in good standing. However, she disputed the lawsuit’s assertion that Baker has improper access to databases and said he does not touch NCIC/LINK because of his record. He uses other databases for his job, Hiatt said.
Zirbes said she was disciplined for going outside the jail and disclosing jail policy to outside agencies. In 2007, she was also disciplined for going outside her chain of command to communicate with a federal agency.
A spokesman for the Fayette jail declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson said yesterday he did not like the idea of felons accessing databases with sensitive law enforcement information even if it was in line with AOC policy.
“I don’t like convicted felons making decisions on custody issues. It doesn’t sound right. If they want to hire convicted felons, put them somewhere else, but don’t let them help make decisions about setting bond,” Larson said.
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