Court Grants Agreed Order of Dismissal In Animal Shelter Lawsuit Against County

Darren Doyle, story:
A lawsuit against Edmonson County Fiscal Court, the former Judge Executive, former animal shelter owners, and past and present county magistrates dating back to 2013 has now ended as a result of an agreed order of dismissal on Monday, May 15, 2017.

According to County Attorney Greg Vincent, the county asked the court to dismiss the case outright but that motion was denied.

"After arguing for 15 minutes, we suggested dismissing the case with an order that says the county will follow the law, which is what we have claimed to have always done," Vincent said.

Vincent also added that there was no finding of any kind with either the county or the Carrolls (who ran the former county shelter) of wrongdoing, although former shelter Director Kim Carroll was charged with Cruelty to Animals, 2nd degree, a Class A misdemeanor on June 3, 2016. Her husband Greg, was not charged. Mrs. Carroll pleaded not guilty to the charge, which is still pending.

"After all this time and effort, the county's standpoint on this issue is unchanged," said Vincent. "The plaintiff has an order that says the county will obey the law, which we are required to do anyway."

The remaining plaintiffs in the case were Kathryn and Ken Smith. Kathryn is the founder of the Humane Society of Edmonson County.

Vincent also announced the dismissal in today's session of fiscal court. The Smiths gave no public comment at today's meeting.
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Messages sent to her last week requesting comments on this case were not returned. We asked her in person today for those comments.

"Since you feel that the Humane Society of Edmonson County is a conflict of interest, and you won't post about it, we have no comments at this time," said Mrs. Smith.

Although we have covered and reported on many local animal shelter and humane society issues, the Edmonson Voice has never taken a public stance on any of those matters.

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