Request By:
Mr. Robert Ken Terry
Perry County Sheriff
P.O. Box 659
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You ask what part the county sheriff will play in connection with the new district court, beginning on January 2, 1978.
When sessions of the district court are held in the county courthouse or other county-owned facilities, or in urban county facilities, or in state-owned, leased, or controlled facilities, or in special district facilities, or in private facilities, the sheriff shall be responsible for attending court, keeping order, and providing the same services to district court as are provided to the circuit court. See KRS 24A.140(1).
The sheriff shall be compensated for such services in the same manner and at the same rates as for similar services rendered to the circuit court, according to KRS 24A.140(2). We note that KRS 64.090, as amended in 1976 [1976 Acts (Ex. Sess.) Ch. 22, § 77, effective January 2, 1978], provides that the sheriff shall get a fee of $7.00 for summoning a jury in a misdemeanor case [district court has no felony jurisdiction], attending trial, and conducting the defendant to jail, to be paid by the party convicted. In addition, for serving process or arresting the party in misdemeanor cases, the sheriff shall be paid a fee of $7.00, to be paid by the plaintiff [state], provided defendant is convicted and pays the cost. See KRS 64.340.
Under KRS 24A.140(4), if the Administrative Office of the Courts determines that the providing of services by a sheriff to the district court would place an undue burden on such officer, the Administrative Office of the Courts may arrange with any other law enforcement officer or agency in the Commonwealth to provide such services.
The Attorney General, effective January 1, 1978, will be the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth as well as the chief law officer or prosecutor of the state. See KRS 15.700.