Request By:
Mr. Robert Scott Madden
Clay County Attorney
P.O. Box 398
Courthouse
Manchester, Kentucky 40962
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As Clay County Attorney, and concerning your prosecutorial duties in district court, you request our opinion on this question:
"Is there any provision for paying a sheriff, deputy sheriff or designated officer for serving appropriate papers in criminal prosecution in district court?"
KRS 24A.140(1) and (2) reads:
(1) When sessions of district court are held in:
(a) The county courthouse or other county-owned facility;
(b) Urban-county facilities;
(c) State-owned, leased or controlled facilities;
(d) Special district facilities; or
(e) 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.
(2) The sheriff shall be compensated for these services in the same manner and at the same rates as for similar services rendered to the circuit court.
Assuming that district court is being held in one of the facilities mentioned in KRS 24A.140(1)(a) through (e), the sheriff is responsible for waiting on the court and serving court process. Under subsection (2), the sheriff shall be compensated for such services in the same manner and at the same rates as are provided to the circuit court.
Thus the sheriff's fee schedule in KRS 64.090 determines his fees. The schedule presently provides a fee of $10.00, for example, for serving process or arresting the party in misdemeanor cases. However, the sheriff's collection of his fee in a criminal case is conditioned upon the conviction of the defendant and his payment of the fee to the court clerk. Bell County v. Minton, 239 Ky. 840, 40 S.W.2d 379 (1931).
The sheriff, of course, will have to serve the court papers in the precise manner required by the criminal and civil rules of procedure. See RCr 1.08. For example, as to executing a warrant and summons, see RCr 2.10. See also RCr 5.06 and RCr 7.02.
You say suppose the district court issues a warrant for the arrest of persons subsequently found in other counties. Then how is the district court or sheriff to provide for picking up that defendant and transporting the defendant from the county in which he is arrested to the county of the court of jurisdiction?
We can find no statutory basis for compensating the sheriff for transporting misdemeanants from one county to another. See Board of Drainage Comsr's v. Alliston, 198 Ky. 310, 248 S.W. 850 (1923) 851. However, where the sheriff of the county of jurisdiction makes an arrest, he would be entitled to the arrest fee, as outlined above.