WQXE NEWS

The Hardin County Schools Board of Education announced a change to the school calendar and approved dates for the district’s high school graduation ceremonies during their board meeting last week.

Friday, May 24 will be the final day of school for K-12 students. The district says ending the year on the 24th allows the school year to finish on a Friday and before Memorial Day. The board is excusing three days of school that were missed due to inclement weather. The district says they traditionally schedule more school days than required by state law.

Graduation for John Hardin High School will be held at 7 p.m. on May 24 at Bulldog Stadium.

Central Hardin High School will hold graduation at 11 a.m. on May 25 at Bruin Gym.

North Hardin High School will hold graduation at 6 p.m. on May 25 at the North Hardin football field, Ray Story Stadium.

Hardin County High School families have appointments for graduates to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas beginning at 9 a.m. on May 18.

Contact Hardin County Schools for more information.

The suspects charged in the Crystal Rogers investigation all appeared in the Nelson Circuit Court for a pre-trial conference Thursday.

Brooks Houck and Steven Lawson appeared in person and Joseph Lawson appeared via Zoom from the Kentucky State Reformatory before Judge Charles Simms III to discuss the status of several motions that have been filed in the case.

Special Prosecutor Shane Young said discovery in the case has been completed, with the final round of data consisting of about 265 gigabytes being transferred to the defense counsels. When asked by Simms about the change of venue motion filed by attorneys for Houck and joined by the attorneys for the Lawsons, Young said he agreed with the motion and said he would discuss possible venues with the counsels. The motion filed by Houck’s attorneys asks for the trial to be moved to either Boyd County or Daviess County. Simms requested that the chosen venue be large enough to accommodate members of the public and have a separate entrance for jurors.

Young told Simms the prosecution needs eight weeks to respond to the defenses’ objections to his motion to consolidate the three cases into one trial, and the defense attorneys asked for two weeks after that to respond to the prosecution’s response. Young asked for the same time frame to respond to Steven Lawson’s attorney Ted Lavit’s motion to dismiss based on immunity claims, with Lavit saying the judge may need to hear sworn testimony for his response. 

The case will reconvene for a status conference regarding the change of venue motion on May 1. The other motions will be reviewed in a pre-trial conference scheduled for June 13.

The Hodgenville Police Department is striving to educate parents after a recent uptick in cases involving “sextortion.”

“We are going to go live via Zoom on Monday (March 25) at 7 p.m., and what we’re going to do is we’re just gonna talk about: ‘What is extortion? How can I try to keep my kids safer? What do I do if it happens to me or my kids?’” said Hodgenville Police Chief James Richardson. “We’re going to have the SRO talk about some of the things that he’s seen in the school system, and we’ve got a representative from the school system. We’re also going to talk about, a little bit, the mental health that we see with the kids, that sort of thing.”

The goal of the presentation is to help parents protect their kids.

“We just want to kind of get the word out,” Richardson said. “This is what to be on lookout for. These are some resources you can use. There are some agencies out there and some folks that can help, so we’re just trying to get that word out, get the resources out there for parents, and kind of give a heads up on what they can do to help protect their kids, and if it does happen to them what they can do and who to report it to.”

More information on the presentation and the Zoom link can be found on the Hodgenville Police Department Facebook page.