Pardon Letter Draws Sanction

The Kentucky Supreme Court imposed a five-year suspension of a former Commonwealth’s Attorney.

One charge involved a potential pardon

This disciplinary matter arises from a letter Boling sent to then-Governor Matt Bevin on December 9, 2019, concerning a pardon request for Dayton Jones. In October 2014, Jones and others were drinking alcohol, and when one of the boys passed out, Jones and others sexually assaulted him. A video of the assault was posted on social media. Jones and others involved were indicted. The case was initially prosecuted by Christian County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor. However, because Pryor’s daughter was present at some point during the 2014 incident, Pryor disqualified herself, and special prosecutors were appointed. At no time was Boling a prosecutor in Jones’s case.

Jones entered a guilty plea to sodomy in the first degree, wanton endangerment in the first degree, and distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor in the first degree. On December 1, 2016, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison by the Christian Circuit Court.

Between 2014 and 2018, Jones’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, occasionally contacted Boling with questions regarding events in the criminal case. They also expressed concerns about how the prosecution was proceeding. Boling generally viewed their statements to him as simply venting regarding their grandson’s case. Notably, in March 2018 the Joneses each contributed $1,500 to Boling’s election campaign.

On December 6, 2019, Mrs. Jones contacted Boling. The following day, Boling spoke with Mrs. Jones on the phone and she asked Boling to write a letter to Governor Bevin concerning a pardon request for her grandson. She indicated that they were seeking a pardon but did not specifically indicate whether a Pardon Application had already been filed. Unbeknownst to Boling, Jones had filed a pro se application for pardon or commutation on November 27, 2019, and Governor Bevin’s General Counsel had already recommended Jones receive a pardon or have his sentence commuted.

On December 7, 2019, Boling, as requested, began drafting a letter to Governor Bevin in support of a pardon. Governor Bevin’s term was set to end at midnight on Monday, December 9, 2019. Boling testified that he finished drafting the letter on December 9 and sent it to Mrs. Jones that day.

Therefore, he had Saturday evening, all day Sunday, and a period of time on Monday to reflect before he sent the letter. 

The court

In sum, Boling misused his current position of trust, attacked the prosecutorial discretion of the predecessor Commonwealth’s Attorney and cast doubt on the integrity of the former prosecutor, the Christian Circuit Court and Jones’s defense counsel. It is immaterial that Boling believed, given the eleventh-hour submission of the letter, that then-Governor Bevin would not see the letter, or that the pardon would not be granted. In addition, although Boling now attributes the political and subjective statements to the Joneses, even time constraints seem an unlikely reason for his failure to distinguish those from his own legal analysis in a relatively brief letter. As for the Brafman matter, we are likewise troubled by Boling’s actions that led this Court to conclude the trial was “fundamentally unfair” and characterize Boling’s conduct as “unnecessarily exploitative and dishonest.” Brafman, 612 S.W.3d at 863.

A second count involved prosectorial misconduct in a closing argument.

THOMPSON, J., CONCURRING IN PART AND DISSENTING IN PART:

I agree with the portion of the majority opinion upholding that some amount of discipline is appropriately imposed on Richard Boling for sending the inappropriate letter urging a pardon, but I vehemently disagree that Boling’s alleged prosecutorial misconduct merits any (or more than only minimal) discipline based on the facts before us. Therefore, I disagree that a five-year suspension from the practice of law is the appropriate discipline to be imposed based on both charges and write separately to address my reasoning.

The Courier Journal reported on his resignation from office. (Mike Frisch)