Auge resigns in wake of botched plea agreement

Posted

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Lee County Attorney Ross Braden confirmed Friday morning that Assistant County Attorney Kym Auge has resigned her position effective today,

In a short release from Braden on Friday, he wrote that Auge resigned from the Lee County Attorney's office at his request due to "professional differences regarding case management, including a plea agreement offered in State v. Boyd on January 25, 2021".

Auge's plea agreement inadvertantly allowed Robert LeRoy Boyd to be sentenced on one count of OWI as a result of a 2019 crash the killed LaVerne and Michael Faulkner of Farmington on June 9th.

Auge sent a plea deal, that Braden described Thursday as a "poorly drafted email" to Boyd's attorney Curt Dial of Keokuk saying the state was willing to plead the case down to one count of the original trial information.

The trial information included two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of OWI. Dial jumped on the OWI-1st offense offer, got a signature from Boyd on the deal and forward it to the court before Auge or Braden could walk the offer back.

District Judge John Wright accepted the plea deal about 36 hours later. Braden said he wasn't made aware of the error until that day and wrote a motion to set aside the plea deal, but Wright overruled that motion last week and sentenced Boyd to one year in jail including work release and a $1,250 fine, the maximum allowed for a serious misdemeanor.

Boyd was facing 50 years in prison on the two counts of vehicular homicide. Braden said Thursday the state's intention was to allow Boyd to plead guilty to one of those counts and dismiss the others, but Auge's plea deal left that distinction off in error.

Braden said he will be asking the Lee County Board of Supervisors to replace Auge at Monday's regular meeting.

Kym Auge, Lee County Attorney, news, Pen City Current, plea deal, resignation, Ross Braden

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here