KY town has new sheriff after previous one resigned following 3 DUIs
A new sheriff has been appointed in Robertson County after the previous sheriff, Terry Gray, resigned last week following his third DUI charge in less than two years.
Robertson County Judge Executive Valerie Grigson Miley appointed Randy Insko as interim sheriff, she said in a Facebook post Monday morning. Insko previously served more than 20 years as county sheriff.
Insko will come out of retirement to serve the final year-plus in Gray’s term. However, he has no plans to run for election in November 2026, Miley said.
The Robertson County Fiscal Court was put in a “difficult situation” with the circumstances of Gray’s resignation, Miley said.
“The situation we find ourselves in is not the same as when Judge Stephanie Holbrook appointed Sheriff Terry L. Gray, when Sheriff Mark Sutton was appointed by Judge Hammer Allison, nor any of the appointments before,” Miley wrote in the Facebook post. “We do not have the luxury of the months of preparation and planning that occur when one sheriff retires and another takes their place.”
Gray was arrested Oct. 7 in Mason County after police say he drove more than 110 mph through the county with his police lights on and nearly flipped his car multiple times.
He told Mason County sheriff’s deputies he was looking for a vehicle he had last seen near the Mason-Robertson county line on U.S. Route 68, according to court documents.
Gray was wearing a Robertson County Sheriff’s Office uniform and had a gun and handcuffs when he was arrested, according to court documents.
A deputy found a miniature bottle of Fireball whiskey in his pocket. Gray took a breath test and had a blood alcohol content of 0.226, nearly three times the legal limit of .08 to drive.
Gray resigned from his position two days later, after Gov. Andy Beshear threatened to remove him from office.
Miley said Inkso was chosen among 30 applicants for the position because a new sheriff needed to step in immediately with “no time for a learning curve,” Miley said.
“The new sheriff must be able to step in and immediately begin transition, collection administration and other law enforcement duties, without the need for instruction,” she said.
Robertson County is the state’s smallest county with a population of just over 2,000 according to the 2020 Census. The county is about an hour northeast of Lexington.
