Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling released a statement late Thursday afternoon regarding a letter he sent to former Governor Matt Bevin asking him to consider a pardon for Dayton Jones.
Boling says he “was approached by Mr. Jones’s grandparents to write a letter to Governor Bevin after they expressed to him their thoughts and concerns regarding the way the case was handled”. Boling adds “it was my intent to advise Governor Bevin of their beliefs and thoughts”. However, he says “I failed to specify that in my letter making it appear as if those were my beliefs and thoughts, and they are not”. Unfortunately, Boling says he “cannot fix this perception, at this point”. Boling notes “the Courier-Journal article showed that I had sent the letter to Jackie Jones asking her ‘if it was ok'”. He adds “this question was asked to ensure that I had captured all of their thoughts and beliefs”. Again, Boling says “I failed to state that it was their opinions and beliefs, not my own”.
Boling went on to say “as a member of this community, I have believed, from the beginning of this case, that all of the people involved should have been punished and punished severely and consistently”. He adds “the Jones’s told me that they thought this case should have been an assault case”. He notes “this case involved an assault that caused serious physical injury”. Boling says “my opinion was that since an assault charge and a sodomy charge carry the exact same punishment with a requirement to serve 85% before parole-eligible that it could have been handled as an assault”. He adds “this is my opinion, as a member of this community”. Boling notes “I do believe that all defendants deserved to be punished and held accountable for their actions”, and adds “that I did not prosecute this case nor did I represent any of the defendants that were charged”.
Boling concludes by saying “out of emotion, I made a monumental mistake in preparing this letter, in a rushed fashion, and not specifying it was the beliefs and thoughts of the Jones’s”. He says “I cannot fix this mistake, and I can only apologize to the citizens of Christian County, the victim, his family, and to all of those affected by this letter”. He states “this conduct is not reflective of my normal self and I can promise that nothing of this nature will ever happen again”.
Boling’s news release is below:
You can also click below to see the news release:
