The Knox County Finance Committee has approved a request to hire a new Assistant State’s Attorney in a special meeting held Monday night.
Knox County State’s Attorney John Pepmeyer, along with Assistant State’s Attorney Sabrina Stroops, John Kerr, Jonathan Schlake, and office manager Shari Larson were in attendance for the meeting. They’d made a series of appearances at finance committee meetings in recent months making their request for a new ASA.
The new prosecutor would handle the county’s juvenile cases and the duties of the Compliance Officer after Tyson Parks’ resignation. The approved salary for the position is $47,500 to be funded by different parts of the county’s budget, including the fund set aside for the Compliance Officer.
One matter of concern that committee members brought up was the order for the appointment of a special prosecutor to assist with the State’s Attorney’s office’s uptick in workload. ASA Stroops told the committee that with the hiring of the new prosecutor, the order wouldn’t need to be fulfilled.
Pepmeyer told the committee he sees the new attorney as being a permanent hire, due to the increasing trend of cases.
The request now moves to the full board, which meets on Wednesday.
