The attorney representing the Knox County Board has filed a motion to vacate a court order that forces the county to pay for a special prosecutor to handle juvenile cases.Attorney Jeremy Karlin hired as counsel by the board Wednesday, writes in his motion Friday that State’s Attorney John Pepmyer has used that court order to “extort” raises for his current employees.
Meanwhile, Pepmeyer has gone ahead and hired that special prosecutor in local attorney Chris Kanthak.
This is all as a civil case between Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Stuckart and the Board, Pepmeyer and Treasurer Robin Davis continues on.
The Stuckart suit seeks for Davis to pay State’s Attorney employees raises that were promised by Pepmeyer but Davis has said that she can’t make those payments without board approval.
The board approved the hiring of an additional Assistant State’s Attorney at a salary range of $47,500.
They heeded the court’s warning that a special prosecutor would likely be more costly than hiring a new assistant.
But Pepmeyer sent a letter to Finance Committee Chair David Amor saying viable applicants weren’t applying because the posted salary was too low, saying he’d like to increase the salary to $54,000 but only once several of his employees received raises.
These are the same employees involved in Stuckart suit.
Karlin’s motion also says the circumstances Judge Paul Mangieri understood when he wrote the order in January have changed.
Mangieri found that the need for another prosecutor had become acute with the amount of the office’s resources being poured into two murder trials at the beginning of 2019.
