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Boone County’s top prosecutor works to restore confi dence Chris Mayhew
Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Louis Kelly, the top elected prosecutor for Boone and Gallatin counties, ran on a pledge to clean up the offi ce. Kelly said he waited at fi rst to hear who was going to challenge 18-year incumbent Linda Tally Smith as a candidate. The 42-year-old who plays drums in a blues band as a hobby, said he would have supported someone else. He said he talked to friends, who encouraged him to seek the offi ce. "I saw what I felt was an ethical lapse of my predecessor and I felt somebody’s got to run, because I felt like the public had lost confi dence," Kelly said. Tally Smith had been resisting calls to resign for a year after her involvement in a scandal overturned one of Northern Kentucky's most high-profi le murders. Voters elected Kelly with a landslide victory in 2018 over incumbent Tally Smith Tally Smith. He received 68 percent of votes cast. Tally Smith fought off calls for her to resign during her last year in the offi ce. A clerk fi red by Tally Smith had handed over a thumb drive to the attorney general. Text messages on the thumb drive revealed an aff air developed between Tally Smith and detective Bruce McVay after David Dooley's 2014 murder trial. The murder case was on two episodes of Dateline and received national attention. McVay was the lead detective on the case. The thumb drive also contained messages between McVay and Smith which raised questions about if the defense had access to all evidence. Circuit Court Judge J.R. Schrand agreed evidence was withheld. He ordered a second trial. Dooley was convicted a second time in 2019 in the killing of Michelle Mockbee in 2012 at a warehouse where they both worked. He was sentenced to 43 years in prison. Becoming a Commonwealth's Attorney was never an aspiration before the
Boone County Commonwealth's Attorney Louis Kelly works at a desk in a Burlington office that's near the county's courthouse. THE ENQUIRER/CHRIS MAYHEW
news about Tally Smith spread, Kelly said. "It was when all this kind of stuff blew up," he said. "And it wasn’t clear that someone was going to run and challenge her." Upon taking offi ce, Kelly said he decided defi ning success wasn't going to be about the number of convictions. "It needs to be just about doing the right thing," Kelly said. The offi ce has four full-time attorneys and a part-time attorney plus support staff . They handle about 1,200 circuit court cases fi led each year, he said. Some cases can take two or more years
to prosecute. Kelly said he has focused his offi ce on bringing a timely and just resolution to cases. "And timely, because I do believe in the presumption of innocence and I don’t want people sitting in jail or with an indictment over their head for multiple months and years if we can avoid it," he said. He created a rocket-docket program that has handled more than 200 of the cases in 2019. Defendants accused of lower-level off enses including fi rst-time drug possession or thefts of just over $500 from stores where merchandise
was recovered are off ered the rocket docket process, he said. They can still choose to have charges heard by the grand jury. The average possession case, where the prevailing belief is to recommend parole or treatment had been taking about 100 days between an arrest and a guilty plea, he said. People in those cases were sometimes waiting in jail three or four months for a court resolution. The average time between arrest and guilty plea on the rocket docket has been about 25 days in jail – about a fourth of the typical jail time, he said.
Coast Guard: Barge worker asleep at controls caused Yacht Club collision Cameron Knight
Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Emergency personnel investigate on the Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club bar as it is adrift in the Ohio River after a barge struck it in Ludlow, Ky., on Oct. 2. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER
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The Coast Guard says the reason a barge slammed into the Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club in October was because a person on barge fell asleep at the controls. On Oct. 2, a 1,200-foot tow and barge combination carrying rock, sand and gravel collided with the longstanding club ripping the restaurant and marina in half. Boats docked there were also
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damaged. On Thursday, Dec. 12, the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment Cincinnati released the fi nding of its investigation into the incident. The towing vessel, named the Dale Artigue, operated by Florida Marine Transport was pushing 15 loaded barges and was undamaged in the crash. "The causal factors included the Mate on-watch falling asleep while at the controls thereby failing to maintain See COLLISION, Page 2A
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