‘Vendetta’ or misconduct? Despite allegations, assistant to stay in Fayette prosecutor’s office

Red Corn said she did not have further comment about the report that was issued by the January-February 2019 Christian County grand jury, which considered whether Pryor or Hopkinsville police officer Jefferson Alexander broke the law to obtain charges against another public official. The decision to go to the grand jury was made by new Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling who had defeated Pryor in the 2018 election.

The grand jury ultimately did not indict Pryor because a statute of limitations had expired. Alexander was indicted on a perjury charge. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in an arraignment, WHOP reported.

Pryor’s attorney Steve Romines said Monday that FBI agent Sean Miller chose not to seek a charge against Pryor with a special prosecutor under a statute dealing exclusively with false statements made to federal agents. Instead, Miller presented to a grand jury his claims “along with Ms. Pryor’s longtime political adversary (Boling) to issue — not a charge in which any proof would be necessary — but merely a baseless and defamatory ‘grand jury report’ which effectively precluded Ms. Pryor from presenting the clear proof of her innocence in this matter.”

According to that Christian County grand jury, on Feb. 22, it was given information by Miller “that false or misleading testimony was provided by both Pryor” and officer Alexander about witness and public records tampering and official misconduct charges against a former Hopkinsville city council member in another case.

“We did not find probable cause that former Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor should be indicted for perjury, first-degree since she was not a sworn witness, “ the grand jury said. “However, we did find probable cause that Lynn Pryor should be indicted for official misconduct, first-degree. Unfortunately, since this conduct occurred in 2012, former Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor cannot be indicted on this charge. “

Misdemeanor offenses must be charged within 12 months of the offense, the grand jury said.

Pryor questioned just one witness, Alexander, before a different grand jury in 2012. It led to charges. Ann Cherry, the former council member, was indicted in 2012 on charges of tampering with a witness, tampering with public records and official misconduct during an investigation of a neighborhood prowler, according to court records.

In court records, Cherry said charges were dropped in 2013 after she agreed to step down from the city council and agreed not to run for city council or the mayor’s office in the future. (Cherry later sued the city, Pryor and other parties for malicious prosecution, according to federal court records. She received a settlement of $150,000 in 2017 and the case was dismissed, according to the Kentucky New Era.)

In 2016, Miller of the FBI investigated how the charges against Cherry arose and whether or not Alexander or Pryor lied to get Cherry charged, according to the latest Christian County grand jury report.

The Christian grand jury report said that in April 2017, Miller interviewed Pryor about the Cherry case. She told Miller she would not go forward with a criminal case against Alexander since the officer’s 2012 grand jury statements were more than 12 months old and that no perjury charge could be brought outside the 12-month period, the report said.

Miller relied “on this false information and closed his case,” the grand jury report said.

In spring 2018, Miller received information that the statement made by Pryor about the 12-month statute of limitations was not true, the report said.

Miller told the latest grand jury that in 2018, Pryor did not return his phone calls, possibly because she was busy with an election, the jury’s report said. Miller contacted Boling, the new chief prosecutor, in January to “seek to present this case” to a new grand jury.

The latest grand jury report said Pryor requested to testify before it to tell her side of the case, but the grand jury report did not provide specifics about her testimony.

“An elected commonwealth attorney has the obligation to charge and prosecute felony cases that come before the office,” said Romines, Pryor’s attorney. “Equally as important is the legal and ethical obligation to not prosecute cases that cannot be proven in a court of law. What the office is not to be used for is to settle political vendettas while violating the legal requirements of grand jury secrecy under the guise of “transparency.”

“Ms. Pryor did not and does not believe that Officer Alexander’s actions met the legal requirements of perjury and chose not to waste tax dollars and judicial resources on a fruitless ‘show trial’. Although Ms. Pryor never made an incorrect statement regarding this case, the alleged inaccurate statement that Agent Miller claims Ms. Pryor made to him that caused him to close his investigation could have been discovered within 30 seconds with a simple Google search.”

Pryor had another issue in Christian County where she was commonwealth’s attorney for a little more than 10 years before she arrived at the Fayette prosecutor’s office in February. The Courier-Journal reported that “Pryor and her staff were removed in 2017 from prosecuting defendant Jarred Tabor Long for murder after she acknowledged she had a relationship with a sheriff’s captain who investigated the case. “

“Pryor said at the time that the defense motion to remove her was sexist and a futile, last-minute attempt to derail this trial and avoid the inevitable,” The Courier-Journal reported. “Long pleaded guilty after the appointment of a special prosecutor and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.”

According to the Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office website , Pryor was previously named Kentucky Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year and served as the president of the Commonwealth Attorneys Association.

Pryor is working to implement the DETER (Drug Enforcement, Treatment and Expedited Release) program in Fayette County. The program is designed to move cases involving drug possession more quickly through the court system and provide prompt treatment to those who suffer from addiction, the website said.

This story was originally published April 9, 2019 at 11:14 AM.