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The lawyers in the Nicholas Houck Perjury trial have agreed on a new location.
The Nelson Circuit Court Clerk’s Office on Tuesday provided an agreed upon order from the 10th Judicial Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and Houck’s defense attorney Michael Ferguson, with the sides in agreement to move the November 9 trial to Owenton, KY, located about 80 miles northeast of Bardstown
Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III will need to approve the order. Simms on August 6 gave the prosecution and defense until August 28 to come to an agreement on a new venue. Both Ferguson and Commonwealth’s Attorney Kyle Williamson were optimistic that an agreement could be made, but Williamson expressed concerns with finding a location that could be ready in time for the November 9 trial date.
Houck is charged with Class D Felony Perjury. The indictment indicates the alleged crime occurred between 2015 and 2023. His brother, Brooks Houck, was found guilty for the Murder of Crystal Rogers, who disappeared in July of 2015. Brooks Houck’s 2025 trial was moved out of Bardstown to Bowling Green, KY.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.
Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt provided an update on July activity for the animal shelter.
“We adopted 49, which was significantly down,” McNutt said. “We returned 34, which was up.”
The live release rate at the shelter for July was 93 percent, with the cat live release rate at 96 percent. McNutt said animal control responded to 212 complaints, mostly relating to the heat.
Hardin County Jailer Josh Lindblom said inmates at the Hardin County Detention Center collected 1,304 bags of trash along 118.6 miles of county roads in July, a number that was down as they also assisted at the Hardin County Fair.
“Intake for the month is 456, release is 442, and average daily population is 600, with 561 on the physical count without temporary releases,” Lindblom said.
Hardin County Emergency Management Deputy Director Richard DeWitt said during the previous fiscal year the EMA office issued 53 emergency notifications and responses and staff completed more than 350 hours of training. Recent emergency preparedness efforts included the creation of a supply stockpile for the first 72 hours after a disaster and the placement of mile markers along the Rough River to assist in search and rescue operations.
DeWitt also said the office is working on developing a submission form residents can submit storm damage reports to.
“They can give us a little bit of information, and it comes straight to us, so it helps us get started into looking into areas for damage,” DeWitt said.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet August 25.
The Team Kentucky Stop Scams team is alerting Kentuckians to scams involving jury duty and cryptocurrencies making the rounds again.
According to the Stop Scams team, scammers pretending to be a law enforcement officer will call the intended victim and claim that they missed jury duty. They will then direct the victim to pay a fine via a cryptocurrency kiosk to “resolve the situation” but the money instead goes directly to the scammer.
Legitimate law enforcement officials do not conduct business over the phone, and do not ask for payment in cryptocurrency to resolve fines. If you receive such a phone call, hang up immediately. The Stop Scams team says once cryptocurrency is sent, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to recover.
Visit stopscams.ky.gov for more information on scam attempts, including methods of reporting them, and to sign up for text and email alerts.