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Kentucky Supreme Court declines review of Houck bond appeal

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Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Brooks Houck will remain in custody on a $10 million cash bond.

The Kentucky Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to review the Kentucky Court of Appeals’s decision to uphold Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III’s rejection of a bond reduction filed by Houck’s attorney’s that would have reduced the bond to $500,000. The Supreme Court order states that the decision in the appeal is now final.

Houck is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his arrest in the Rogers investigation. He, along with suspects Steven Lawson and Joseph Lawson, will next appear in court for a pre-trial conference on March 21. During that pre-trial conference, attorneys for Houck will be arguing for a change of venue to move the trial from Nelson County to either Boyd or Daviess counties to avoid pre-trial publicity. The attorney for Steven Lawson will be arguing to dismiss the charges against him based on Lawson’s claims that he was offered immunity in exchange for his cooperation with investigators.

Attorney for Steven Lawson joins change of venue motion filed by attorneys for Brooks Houck

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The attorney for Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Steven Lawson is joining the change of venue motion filed in the case.

Attorney Ted Lavit on Friday filed a motion asking the Nelson Circuit Court to adopt the change of motion filed on behalf of Brooks Houck which asks the court to move the trial to either Boyd County or Daviess County to avoid pretrial publicity. The motion by Houck’s attorneys states that due to extensive media coverage since Rogers’s disappearance the defendants will not be able to get a fair trial in Nelson County, so Boyd and Daviess counties are ideal options as they are not in the Louisville or Lexington TV markets.

The motion will be discussed during a pre-trial conference scheduled for March 21. That is the same day that Lavit plans to also discuss his motion to dismiss the Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence charges against Steven Lawson due to his claim that the prosecution offered him immunity in exchange for his cooperation.

Special Prosecutor Shane Young stated during a previous hearing that he intended to have a motion ready to file in time for the March 21 pre-trial conference in order to try Houck, Lawson, and third suspect Joseph Lawson in the same trial. Young also said he expected discovery in the case to be completed prior to the March 21 pre-trial conference.

Outdoor Expo opportunity to support Hardinsburg police chief during cancer battle

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Ashley Hayes with Grateful Heart Events worked to organize the first ever Hardinsburg, Kentucky, Outdoors Expo on February 24, and the event was not only an opportunity to spotlight local vendors but to help support Hardinsburg Police Chief Terry Laslie in his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“We were able to raise quite a bit for Terry,” Hayes said. “It wasn’t extravagant but it was a really decent amount and I’m pretty happy with that. Terry was really happy with it. He’s choked up, so it turned out to be a really great day.”

Hayes said she has primarily worked on “give-back” events in the last year and became acquainted with Laslie’s family through work with McDaniels Fire and Rescue. Laslie is fighting cancer for the second time in ten years after a bout with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013.

Hayes said the opportunity to support people like Laslie has been rewarding, but her focus has also been helping the community grow.

“Knowing that we are in a small town and not much really takes place, it’s mostly focused around the lake, of course, Rough River Lake, but little, smaller community events,” Hayes said. “There are some that go on like the Breckinridge County Chamber of Commerce, they host some things. There are some local businesses that host things for people. So I just kind of reached out to the public, and I was like ‘what else can we do in our area to bring more to Breck?’”

If you were not able to participate at the expo, there are still ways to support Laslie.

“Anything that he gets from the community will be going towards whatever insurance won’t cover, so open donations are fine,” Hayes said. “Just prayers, because Terry is definitely the praying kind. His family is as well, and so I think prayers will do a lot for him. Just anything really, I mean there’s so many unlimited possibilities that you can do to help. Just lending an ear, asking him, reaching out to him, seeing if there’s anything.”

Hayes said the Outdoor Expo will return to Hardinsburg on February 22, 2025. For more information, search for Grateful Heart Events on Facebook.

ECTC hosting Korean culture and conversation classes

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Elizabethtown Community and Technical College will again offer a Korean culture and a Korean conversation class through the college’s Community Education Program.

“We have designed this class just as an introduction to Korean culture and language, mainly to help people who want to learn a little bit more about the Korean folks that are going to be coming into the area with BlueOval and some of these other entities from South Korea,” said ECTC Chief Workforce Officer Darrin Powell. “Just trying to help people learn a little bit about their customs and a little bit about their language so they can just make basic introductions and just learn to interact with them a little bit easier.”

The goal of the class is to ease the transition for both Korean transplants and local workers who will be working at BlueOval SK and improve communication. Powell says the class is a look at the basics to encourage friendliness and hospitality.

“Basic greetings, you know, ‘hello,’ ‘thank you,’ those kinds of things, just basic informal greetings that people might want to do, basic conversation,” Powell said. “As far as culture, just a little bit about their culture, some of the authentic dress that they might wear, those kinds of things, and a little bit of the differences between our culture and their culture will be pointed out.”

The classes will cost $25 and will be held in Room 112 in the James S. Owen Building on ECTC’s campus. The Korean culture class will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. March 13 and 20 or from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 9 and 11. The Korean conversation class will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on April 14 and 24 or from 6 to 8 p.m. on May 7 and 9.

Contact the ECTC Workforce Solutions Office (270-706-8700) to register or for more information.

Nolin RECC sending five area students to Washington D.C.

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Five area students will be heading to Washington D.C. this June as part of Nolin RECC’s Washington Youth Tour.

Central Hardin High School students Heaven Carpenter and Regan Raifsnider, Elizabethtown High School students Grant Shearer and Anna sumrall, and homeschool student Samuel Teipen will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the nation’s capital that will include visits to sites such as the Smithsonian Institute, Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Capitol, and the National Zzoo, and a visit with Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

“Nolin RECC is proud that these students will be representing our service area,” said Nolin RECC Communications Manager Sarah Fellows. “They join over 1000 other students from cooperatives around the country traveling to Washington for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” 

The selected students are high school juniors whose parents receive services from Nolin RECC and were selected based on review of a submitted essay, an in-person interview, and their knowledge of electric co-ops like Nolin.

Attorneys for Brooks Houck file for change of venue

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Attorneys for Brooks Houck have filed a motion for a change of venue.

In a motion submitted to the Nelson County Circuit Court Thursday, lawyers for Houck are requesting the trial be moved to either Boyd County or Daviess County. Houck is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his arrest in the investigation into the disappearance of Crystal Rogers.

The motion states that Houck cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial in Nelson County or any county in Central Kentucky “due to the significant prejudicial pretrial publicity this case has received.” Houck’s lawyers also feel spillover coverage of the death of Rogers’s father Tommy Ballard will impact the case, including the fact that prosecutors argued during a bond reduction hearing for Houck that his brother Nick Houck is the primary suspect in that case.

The motion states that shortly after Rogers’s disappearance law enforcement named Houck the lone person of interest in the case and released portions of Houck’s interview with police to the media. Included examples of pretrial publicity in the motion are signs that have been placed around Bardstown and Nelson County related to Rogers’s disappearance that say Houck is the main suspect, the local newspaper the Bardstown Standard publishing more than 200 articles about Houck, and extensive media coverage from news outlets in Louisville and Lexington. Lawyers also cite a court decision to grant Houck a change of venue for a case involving unrelated charges against Houck in 2018 that moved that case from Nelson County to Warren County based on publicity from the Rogers investigation.

The motion states that Boyd County is ideal and Daviess County is a suitable alternate as they are located outside of the Louisville and Lexington TV markets and are less than three hours from Nelson County. Houck’s lawyers say “there is no ‘pattern of deep and bitter prejudice’ against Brooks present in Boyd or Daviess County.”

The change of venue motion will be argued during a hearing scheduled for March 21. That is the same day the defense for Steven Lawson, who is charged with Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his arrest in the Rogers investigation, is scheduled to argue a motion to dismiss based on claims that Lawson was offered immunity.

Hodgenville Police ask parents to talk with kids after incident at McDonald’s

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The Hodgenville Police Department is asking parents to have a chat with their kids about behavior following an after school incident at the Hodgenville McDonald’s.

“There’s not a lot for our kids to do after school, and all the schools except for the ALES (Abraham Lincoln Elementary School) right down the street are all basically in that corner, so that’s a real popular place for the kids to go hang out after school, the McDonald’s, the Burger King area over there,” said Hodgenville Police Chief James richardson. “And that’s fine, and everybody, all the employees, the administrators, everybody is okay with that. They understand and they enjoy having the kids there, but we’ve been having a lot of problems lately with kids being disrespectful, verbally abusive.”

That’s Hodgenville Police Chief James Richardson.

The incident that sparked the response was on March 4 when a physical altercation broke out on the property, resulting in five juveniles being charged with Disorderly Conduct and Fourth Degree Assault and being trespassed from the McDonald’s.

Richardson is asking parents to remind their kids to be responsible.

“We just wanted to put out to the community ‘hey, have a chat with your kids,’” Richardson said. “And the world we live in right now with everything that’s online, our verbal skills and the ability to talk to people and have compassion for people is greatly affected by the fact that everything is online and no longer face to face, and people forget that they can say things or can’t say things to their face that they can say online because it doesn’t come across the same way, or it’s going to hurt their feelings and make them mad, and then you start a fight.”

The HPD says students that see something out of hand should contact a parent or the school resource officer.

Work begins on 31-W/KY 218 connector in Horse Cave

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Excavation and ground clearing work has begun on the new connector between U.S. 31-W and Kentucky Route 218 in Horse Cave.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says the connector will help relieve issues with truck traffic at the intersection between the two roads in downtown Horse Cave and the adjacent KY 218 railroad crossing. The connector will also provide better access to and from Interstate 65 and industrial facilities, will reduce the potential for railroad crossing collisions, and will reduce wear and tear on existing streets.

“With that connector being a new route, there really won’t be continual impacts to traffic through there, so that’s good news for folks traveling on KY 218 and 31-W,” said KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie. “There will be intermittent impacts to KY 335 traffic through there. That’s where most of the construction vehicles will be entering and exiting. It’s going to take this year and next year to get it complete, but when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be a lot better in downtown Horse Cave, getting that heavy truck traffic out of that area.”

Scotty’s Contracting and Stone LLC was awarded the $8.85 million contract for the project in January. The completion date specified in the contract is June 30, 2025.

Hardin County Water District No. 2 warns against third party payment websites

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Hardin County Water District No. 2 is cautioning customers about using a third party to make bill payments.

“We just want to caution customers to make sure that they know whose website they’re on when they try to make a payment,” said HCWD No. 2 General Manager Shaun Youravich. 

Doxo is a third party website and is not affiliated with the water district, but when you search the water district online the Doxo website pops up with wording that customers might take to mean implies a direct link to the water district.

Because a payment through Doxo is not a direct payment, the water district may not receive your payment quickly, which can result in frustration and fees for customers.

“We may not see the payment for seven to ten days, if at all,” Youravich said. “So yes, a customer could be subject to disconnect for non-payment if that payment shows up after the due date.”

The water district says many utilities nationwide have issued similar warnings. Youravich reminds customers that going direct is your best bet.

“We certainly encourage customers to make sure that they go directly to our website if they’re trying to make a payment online, but the best option is through ACH, where the payment is automatically drafted,” Youravich said.

Contact Hardin County Water District No. 2 for more information.

State seeking input on future of rail industry in Kentucky

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The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet invites rail users, business owners, or people simply interested in transportation to provide input on the 2024 Kentucky Statewide Rail Plan.

The transportation cabinet says the Statewide Rail plan is a “high-level guidance document that provides a snapshot of current operations and opportunities to increase Kentucky’s economic growth and improve quality of life.” The plan will include identified rail needs, opportunities, potential investments, and improvements for both passenger and freight operations.

The transportation cabinet is hosting three open houses in order for those interested to see previous development work on the plan and provide input, with the nearest meeting to the area being Tuesday, March 12 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Union Station in Louisville. Anybody unable to attend but still interested in reviewing the plan and providing feedback can visit kyrailplan.com.