Theft scheme targets elderly

WE’VE MOVED: The Salyersville Independent can now be located at 171 Dixie Avenue.
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Anita Back Arnett
Penelope Kay “Penny”
Blanton Jackson
Jonah Preston McCarty
Willie Bartram
Sean Robert Hensley
Thursday, May
7, 2015
VOL. 100, No. 19 Pages 20
UPS 944-240
James Comer denies abusing college girlfriend
By JOE GERTH
The Courier-Journal
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gubernatorial candidate James Comer emphatically denied Tuesday
that he ever abused a former girlfriend or that
he took her to an abortion clinic in Louisville to
have a procedure.
“The crime of domestic violence sickens me.
The notion that I could commit such a horrific
offense is beyond any semblance of reason,”
Comer said in a 20-minute press conference at
the downtown Hilton.
The press conference came one day after Marilyn Thomas, who dated Comer when they were
students at Western Kentucky University, told
The Courier-Journal in a letter that he had hit
her, called her parents’ home early one morning
to threaten her, and was controlling and vindictive.
In the letter, Thomas also said that in 1991,
Comer drove her to a clinic in Louisville to have
an abortion.
THEFT
Standing next to his wife, T.J. Comer, the agriculture commissioner said The Courier-Journal’s story was full of “inconsistencies, implausible scenarios and flat-out lies. Everyone who
knows me knows the charges are completely
incompatible with everything I stand for and everything that I am.”
Courier-Journal Executive Editor Neil Budde
said the newspaper would be making no com-
See GOV| Page A2
ACCIDENT
Man injured while
burning debris
By HEATHER ONEY
Editor
GUNLOCK - A Magoffin County man was flown
out after an accident involving a fire.
Magoffin County Rescue Squad received a call
at approximately 3 a.m. Tuesday, May 5 that a man
was injured while burning debris on Half Mountain in Magoffin County. According to Magoffin
County Rescue Squad Captain Carter Conley, an
aerosol can somehow got in the fire, exploding
and causing Kenny Mullins to fall into the fire.
Mullins was flown by Air Medical Service’s
Kentucky 9 unit to Cabell Huntington Hospital. He
sustained second degree burns to his face, neck
and ears, and third degree burns on his hands and
arm.
Magoffin County Rescue Squad, District 3 Fire
Department, and Transtar responded to the scene.
Conley reminded the public that when burning
debris to always be cautious and make sure no
combustible materials are near the flames.
Theft scheme targets elderly
By HEATHER ONEY
Editor
SALYERSVILLE - Money was stolen from an
elderly Magoffin County resident’s home Tuesday by two men claiming to work for the county
and wanting to help her with repairs.
Louise Hampton, who lives on Kentucky
Route 30, said a man came to her back door on
Tuesday afternoon, asking her what repairs she
needed done in her home and claiming to work
for the county.
Hampton said she sat on the porch with the
man a while, but he would only tell her he lived
in Salyersville, worked for the county and his
last name was Williams. The man told her that
they do repairs for older people and saw that
she had a ramp, so they knew she was handicap
and needed help with repairs.
While she told him repeatedly she did not
Friday
30% Chance Rain
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need repairs, he insisted she write down a list
of things that need completed. He called for
another man, who had been sitting in the tan/
pewter pickup truck in her driveway, to come
up to the porch. When she went back into her
home to get a piece of paper, she said they entered into her home without permission.
“I just knew they were going to kill me,”
Hampton said. “I just asked the Lord to take
care of me.”
One of the men walked through her living
room and unlocked the door, saying he needed to go check for needed repairs on the other
side of her house, Hampton recalled. She told
him, again, she did not need repairs. While that
man walked outside “checking for repairs,” she
asked the other if he would also go back outside
onto the porch, which he did.
She said she went outside with him and told
See THEFT| Page A2
Saturday
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Funds secured to
start construction
on battlefield park
By HEATHER ONEY
Editor
SALYERSVILLE - The Magoffin County Fiscal
Court met in special session Thursday, April 30,
accepting two proclamations, a resolution and an
agreement to extend funding to the sheriff’s office.
The Court voted unanimously to accept a
$125,000 grant and to do a 50 percent match of
$62,500 to begin construction on the Puncheon
Battlefield Community Park.
They also accepted a proclamation, deeming the month of May 2015 as “Older American’s
Month,” resolving to honor the older population
in the community, recognizing their value and
strengths they provide to the county.
The Court also accepted a proclaiming and
resolution making May “Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month,” honoring Tracy Patrick Watson, who
battled the disease for over 40 years and received
a lung transplant in November 2014, making her
able, for the first time, to walk in the Great Strides
Cystic Fibrosis Walk, which will be held at the Ramey Memorial Park on Saturday, May 9 from 1 to
Sunday
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See FISCAL| Page A3
Extended
Coverage
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