Tag: kentucky

Kentucky Cops Arrest Man for Shouting at Them

A Kentucky man is suing the police, claiming he was arrested in retaliation for shouting at a group of officers from an apartment balcony. In a complaint filed last month, Brandon Rettig alleges that he was arrested on bogus public intoxication charges after he angered the officers, who violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights. 

According to the lawsuit, on June 8, 2024, Brandon Rettig was at his girlfriend’s apartment in Newport, Kentucky, when a team of police officers responded to an unrelated incident outside the building. From the balcony, Rettig shouted at the officers. In a later interview, Rettig claimed to have shouted “go get ’em boys” at the officers. The lawsuit insists that while the officers were angered by the comments, “Rettig did not utter fighting words or threatened to harm anyone.”

The suit claims that soon after Rettig made the comments, Officer Ronald Lalumandier shouted up to him, “Keep it up, I’ll take your ass to jail,” adding “I got keys to your apartment.” Three police officers, including Lalumandier, then entered the apartment building using a key card, which Lalumandier had access to as a former tenant.

According to body camera footage, the three officers confronted Rettig in the hallway of the apartment building and arrested him after a short argument. 

“Are you serious? I live here,” Rettig told the officers.

“Yes, 100 percent. We told you out there, you didn’t listen,” responded one of the officers. “You shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing…doesn’t mean you can act the way you were acting.”

Keep reading

Kentucky Residents Who Participate In State’s New Medical Marijuana Program Will Be Ineligible To Own Guns, Feds Warn

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is warning Kentucky residents that, if they choose to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program that’s set to launch imminently, they will be prohibited from buying or possessing firearms under federal law.

As Kentucky prepares to implement the medical cannabis law that Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed last year, ATF has put residents on notice about the ongoing federal ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana, regardless of individual state policies.

“You cannot possess firearms and ammunition and also be a user of marijuana,” ATF Special Agent AJ Gibes told WDRB this month, referring to a statute requiring gun purchasers to fill out a form that includes a question about whether they are an active marijuana consumer. If they check yes, they’re disqualified from owning the firearm.

Notably, Gibes said that while people who already own a gun aren’t “expected to” turn them over if they become state-legal cannabis patients, those who “wish to follow federal law and not be in violation of it” must “make the decision to divest themselves of those firearms.”

He added that ATF is “not actively seeking and working solely on investigations involving just the possession of firearms and marijuana because of our finite resources,” but that doesn’t change the law, and people will still be at risk of prosecution if they violate it.

ATF has also weighed in on other recent state cannabis policy developments.

Keep reading

‘Running a brothel’: Judge killed in chambers by sheriff was part of sextortion scheme where women on house arrest exchanged sex for special treatment, lawyer says

A Kentucky judge who was gunned down in his chambers by a local sheriff was allegedly “running a brothel” out of his courtroom, according to a witness from a separate criminal case, with her claim being played up as a “compelling defense” for the shooting in court.

“He does have some videotapes of some stuff in the judge’s chambers,” alleged witness Sabrina Adkins told police in an audio recording obtained by NewsNation from a criminal case involving one of ex-sheriff Shawn Stines’ old deputies, Ben Fields, who was convicted and sentenced this year to six months in jail — and nearly a decade of probation — for rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device, according to The Mountain Eagle.

“Just with girls, sexual and stuff,” Adkins said. “I’ve seen one partly.”

Adkins, a defendant who was placed on house arrest, claimed in the audio recording that the footage she saw showed slain U.S. District Judge Kevin Mullins having sex with women in exchange for special treatment. She filed a federal lawsuit in January 2022 and Stines — a close friend of Mullins’ for roughly three decades — had just been deposed in the ongoing case on Sep. 16, three days before the shooting, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

“I seen Judge Mullins having sex with a girl … in the judge’s chambers,” Adkins told police during the Fields investigation, noting how she had sex with Fields once in the office.

Adkins outlined what she allegedly went through in the complaint for her civil suit, saying Mullins’ chambers served as a secret haven for Fields and other “higher ups” due to the fact that there weren’t any surveillance cameras present.

“There were no cameras,” the complaint says. It describes how Fields allegedly took off Adkins’ ankle monitor and told her she “would not have to pay the associated fees any longer, but could remain out on home incarceration” if she performed sexual favors for him.

According to the complaint, Fields met Adkins at least six times in Mullin’s chambers to receive those favors.

“During these meetings, Defendant Fields’ behavior escalated from flirtatious comments to forcible kissing, to oral sex, to intercourse with Plaintiff, all of which occurred at the Letcher County Courthouse after hours, in Judge Mullins’ Chambers,” the complaint says. “Plaintiff was coerced and compelled to comply with Defendant Fields’ advances given Defendant Fields’ position of power, and because she could not afford to pay for the ankle monitor and did not want to return to the Letcher County Jail.”

Late last month, Adkins’ claim was brought up in court — as was the Fields case — by Stines’ defense lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, who believes Adkins’ police interview and Stines’ deposition in her civil case are “going to be crucial” in defending the former lawman.

Keep reading

“It Did Occur” – Kentucky County Clerk Confirms Voting Booth ‘Glitch’ Shifted Trump Votes To Kamala

Earlier in the day, a video went viral of voters in Kentucky having ‘issues’ with an electronic voting machine that selected “Kamala Harris” when the voter had pressed on “Donald Trump”…

Admittedly, we have seen a few of these style of clips over the past few weeks and viewed it with the same level of skepticism we usually do.

However, this time is different because the local County Clerk just issued a statement on Facebook confirming the issue “did occur”… but not before he had denied it occurred.

According to the Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown, the machine was taken out of service while waiting for a rep from the AG’s Office.

Keep reading

Shock Video: Kentucky Voting Machine Won’t Let Voter Select Trump!

Alarming footage out of Kentucky appears to show a voter being prevented from selecting Donald Trump as his presidential pick.

A viral video shows a man in Laurel County repeatedly attempting to push the Trump-Vance selection on a voting machine as it fails to register his pick.

As the man keeps pushing Trump-Vance, the voting machine instead registers a vote for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Democrat ticket.

“This is in Kentucky. I took this video, it was my vote,” the man seen trying to vote wrote on X.

“I tried to pick Trump 10 times, it would not work, so I began recoding [sic] and kept trying. I went to the head of the election board and will send this video to KY attorney General.”

Keep reading

State senator dies following freak lawn mower accident

Kentucky state Sen. Johnnie Turner, a Republican, died on Tuesday, Senate President Robert Stivers noted in a statement on behalf of the Senate Majority Caucus.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Sen. Johnnie Turner’s passing Tuesday evening, following a hard-fought battle with injuries sustained in his recent accident,” the statement reads. 

Turner, who passed away at 76, was hurt last month when he plummeted into an empty swimming pool while riding a lawn mower, the Associated Press reported.

Keep reading

Kentucky Man Declared Brain Dead Wakes Up During Organ Harvesting Operation, Opened Eyes and Started Visibly Crying

A Kentucky man who was declared brain-dead woke up as surgeons were in the middle of harvesting his organs.

The Guardian reported that Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II was taken to the Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, in 2021 due to suffering from cardiac arrest.

Family members were later told by doctors Hoover “lacked any reflexes or brain activity” and was later taken off life support.

Hoover, who was a registered organ donor, was then taken to have his organs evaluated to see which organs were eligible for donation.

As the evaluation process began, Hoover’s eyes opened up, and he started to look at his loved ones in the room.

Family members were told by doctors, “It was just reflexes – just a normal thing.”

Baptist and the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates reported that an hour later, Hoover’s body was taken into surgery to have his organs removed, but surgeons stopped the process after Hoover started to “thrash” and “cry visibly.”

The doctors then came out and told Hoover’s family he “wasn’t ready” and instructed family members to take him back home and make him “comfortable.”

People reported, “Hoover is still alive and being cared for by his sister as he has difficulty with walking, talking, and memory.”

Keep reading

Shocking Video Footage of Kentucky Sheriff Gunning Down Judge Played in Court — Horrifying Moment Unfolds After Sheriff Sees ‘Something’ on Judge’s Cellphone

Chilling surveillance footage of the moment former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines shot and killed District Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers was played during a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines, 43, fatally shot District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, last month.

Stines turned himself in without incident and was charged with first-degree murder.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Sheriff Stines was deposed in a federal lawsuit for failing to investigate claims that Ben Fields, a deputy who worked as a jailer at the courthouse, sexually assaulted two female inmates inside of the judge’s chambers.

Ben Fields was indicted on seven felony counts and one misdemeanor for sexually assaulting at least two women. Fields was sentenced to 7 years but will only spend 6 months in jail and the other six and a half years on probation for rape, sodomy, perjury, and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device.

“The women claimed Fields told them he would not make them pay for the monitoring if they would do him “a favor.”

Fields disabled the devices, told the monitoring company that bail conditions had been changed so the devices were not required, and then used threats of arrest to force the women to have sex with him. When Letcher Circuit Judge James W. Craft II asked Fields for GPS coordinates for one of the subjects for a court appearance, Fields said he couldn’t locate her and filed an escape charge against her, court records show,” The Mountain Eagle reported.

On Tuesday, Stines appeared before the court dressed in a jail uniform, hands cuffed, as prosecutors presented key evidence linking him to the murder of his long-time friend, Judge Mullins.

Stines, who officially resigned from his position as sheriff just one day prior, is accused of gunning down the district judge in what the defense is suggesting was an act of “extreme emotional disturbance” rather than premeditated murder, CNN reported.

Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley admitted that Stines did shoot Mullins but claimed the former sheriff was not in a rational state of mind at the time.

“I think they’ve established probable cause for manslaughter first, but not murder,” Bartley argued.

A chilling 20-second surveillance footage was played in the court. Judge Mullins was seen crouching behind his desk in an attempt to shield himself as Stines fired multiple rounds.

In a final, devastating moment, Stines, who had begun to leave, returned and fired additional shots upon noticing movement from Mullins under the desk.

Keep reading

Kentucky Governor Plans To Collect Sales Tax On Gold And Silver Despite New Law

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has decided he’s going to continue collecting sales tax on the sale of gold and silver despite a new law repealing the levy and an attorney general opinion calling his line-item veto of the provision unconstitutional.

Only five other states levy a sales tax on gold and silver.

Initially, Rep. Steven Doan and Rep. John Hodgson introduced a standalone bill to repeal the sales and use tax on gold and silver bullion. The provisions were later inserted into House Bill 8 (HB8), an omnibus revenue and tax bill. 

The provisions in HB8 define “bullion” as “bars, ingots, or coins, which are made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or a combination of these metals, valued based on the content of the metal and not its form and used, or have been used, as a medium of exchange, security, or commodity by any state, the United States government, or a foreign nation.” Currency is defined as “a coin or currency made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal or paper money that is or has been used as legal tender and is sold based on its value as a collectible item rather than the value as a medium of exchange.”

The House passed the bill 87-9 and the Senate approved the measure 34-0.

Gov. Beshear signed the bill but used a line-item veto to strike out the sales tax exemption for gold and silver. 

“If you own gold, you can afford to pay sales tax,” Beshear wrote in his veto message. “Tangible goods are the primary basis of the sales tax.”

Keep reading

Kentucky Governor Pushes DEA To Reschedule Marijuana, Saying It’s An “Alternative To Deadly Opioids’

The governor of Kentucky has added his voice to the chorus of people urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to follow through on the Biden administration’s plan to reschedule marijuana.

Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Wednesday submitted a public comment on the proposed rule, which would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). There are currently more than 31,000 comments submitted on the proposal, with the deadline to weigh in coming up on Monday.

“As Governor, my job is to move our state forward,” Beshear said, referencing his state’s medical cannabis legalization policy that he signed into law. “Rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III is a significant, common-sense step forward for all Kentuckians, especially those with significant medical conditions.”

He added that the reclassification will have “substantial and meaningful impacts” on patients, communities, businesses and research.

While he argued that the reform would provide an “alternative to deadly opioids,” that’s not necessarily the case. As a Schedule III drug, marijuana would still be federally illegal unless the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it as a medicine, which is unlikely for a botanical substance.

Beshear added that rescheduling will promote “fair markets” for cannabis, as it will allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to take federal tax deductions that they’ve been barred from under an Internal Revenue Service code known as 280E. The policy change would also mean “real opportunities for research on marijuana” since certain barriers imposed on studying Schedule I drugs would be lifted.

Keep reading