FORT MITCHELL — Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson broke campaign promises and paid outside lawyers thousands of dollars for legal work his staff should have performed, his opponent has charged.

        Those are just two of the allegations Independence lawyer Eric Deters makes against Mr. Edmondson in a phone-book-sized, 660-page research document his campaign has produced.

Edmondson

        “The documentation, summary and analysis ... raises serious questions regarding the competence of Garry Edmondson to represent the (Kenton County) Fiscal Court and handle the litigation needs of the county,” Mr. Deters writes in a 6-page introduction to the research.

        Much of the information came through documents Mr. Deters received through the state's open records law, under which the public has access to records held by government bodies and agencies.

        Mr. Edmondson flatly denied the allegations and said the information is evidence that Mr. Deters does not have the understanding it takes to be county attorney.

        “This is typical of the way he operates,” said Mr. Edmondson, who faces Mr. Deters in the May GOP primary.

        “He simply puts together all kinds of extraneous facts and then he twists them and says things that simply aren't true to try and make a point,” Mr. Edmondson said.

        One section of the research report produces newspaper articles from 1993, when Mr. Edmondson — then a Democrat — defeated long-time county attorney John Elfers in the primary.

        In those articles, Mr. Edmondson alleged improprieties over $13,000 in campaign contributions Mr. Elfers had received from members of his staff.

        But Mr. Deters said Mr. Edmondson has accepted $10,274 in campaign contributions from members of his staff and their families; from the bankers who handle the county attorney's money; and from lawyers who do work for the county attorney's office.

        Taking those contributions broke Mr. Edmondson's 1993 campaign promise to avoid conflicts of interest, Mr. Deters charged.

        Mr. Edmondson said there is nothing inappropriate or illegal about the contributions he has taken and that he will never be influenced by a campaign contribution. Most of the contributions were $100 or less, Mr. Edmondson said.

        Mr. Edmondson said the comments he made about Mr. Elfers had to do with allegations that members of his staff made contributions to the Elfers campaign in the exact amount of bonuses they had received from their boss.

        In his report, Mr. Deters also points out that, under Mr. Edmondson, outside law firms have been paid at least $316,449, according to county billing records.

        That amount does not include invoices on a major legal case involving a contested payroll tax increase the fiscal court implemented that has been challenged and is still in the courts.

        Mr. Edmondson said it would be impossible for his staff of nine attorneys — four full-time and five part-time — to handle his office's average annual caseload of 91,000 cases.

        The county attorney's office not only provides legal advice to county office and departments but also handles all court arraignments, prosecutes misdemeanor crimes and oversees the payment and collection of child support.

        “Some of (the cases) simply become very time-consuming or require some outside expertise that I don't have in-house and couldn't afford to have in-house because you have to pay exorbitant salaries for those kind of people,” he said.

        Mr. Deters said that if elected, he will reallocate the office's resources “to hire a good staff and supervise them so they can take those big cases.”

        “I'm an experienced trial attorney who is in court every day against the best attorneys,” he said. “I won't have to hire other attorneys to take those cases.”

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