District Attorney Neal Pinkston did not attend Wednesday’s County Commission meeting after being asked to do so by Commissioner Tim Boyd. County Attorney Rhuebin Taylor said the Commissioners have no subpoena power and cannot require the DA to answer questions about his budget and if or how his relatives are being paid using county or state funds.
“These are questions the DA needs to address and answer, and I don’t want the media or third party (to do it). I want to ask these questions directly,” Commissioner Boyd said, before being told the Commission cannot require anyone to appear before them.
In May, Commissioner Boyd drew attention to DA Pinkston hiring family members to work in his office.
Commissioner Boyd, who was earlier prosecuted by DA Pinkston on an extortion charge, later said the question came after he received an email just before the budget session supposedly from a member of the DA's staff. The email says DA Pinkston married former TV personality Melydia Clewell and then hired her brother.
Commissioner Boyd said on Wednesday, “My fellow commissioners, we need to keep asking the DA to appear until we have the opportunity to have the DA appear and answer these questions on record, because these are serious, serious issues not complying with the rules of professional conduct, in violation of the Nepotism Act of 1980.”
“Gentlemen, you do not have subpoena power,” attorney Taylor said.
Commissioner Greg Martin said it is “inappropriate and unacceptable to insult the character of a commissioner on this dais, and in the spirit of that, to call one of our constitutional officers a fraud.”
He posited that if a constitutional officer like DA Pinkston is suspected of violating the law, then Tim Boyd should contact the state attorney general and get that office involved instead.
“Get those documents to the attorney general and let him look at those documents,” Commissioner Martin said. “He’s the one who will be able to see if there’s been malfeasance. If he finds something wrong, he can take it to the appropriate court.”
Commissioner Boyd said he did not accuse DA Pinkston of fraud, and said, “I want him to address misleading statements of material fact. I’m not accusing him of fraud. I want to hear it from him.”