Request By:
Mr. Daniel P. Stratton
Attorney at Law
Ward Building
Pikeville, Kentucky 41501
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question about qualifications of an assistant commonwealth's attorney reads:
"Does an attorney, to qualify as an Assistant Commonwealth Attorney have to reside in the judicial district in which he will serve, and is there such a residency requirement for one to continue to serve as an Assistant Commonwealth Attorney once appointed?"
Section 234 of the Kentucky Constitution reads:
"All civil officers for the State at large shall reside within the State, and all district, county, city or town officers shall reside within their respective districts, counties, cities or towns, and shall keep their offices at such places therein as may be required by law."
The word "officer" as used in § 234 of the Constitution applies only to those officers directly named and designated in the Constitution. City of Newport v. Schindler, Ky., 449 S.W.2d 17 (1970) 18. The term "assistant commonwealth attorney" is not mentioned in the constitution. We find no statutory provision relating to residency. Cf. KRS 69.300, relating to assistant county attorneys. KRS 15.760(3) merely provides that all assistant commonwealth's attorneys shall be licensed practicing attorneys, and that full-time assistant commonwealth's attorneys shall not be allowed to engage in the private practice of law.
KRS 69.070, 69.080, and 69.095, required assistant commonwealth's attorneys in certain counties to reside in the district in which the commonwealth's attorney is elected. However, those sections were repealed, effective January 1, 1978, in the Extraordinary Session of 1976 [Ch. 17, § 52].
For the above reasons an assistant commonwealth's attorney is not required to be a resident of the judicial district in which his commonwealth's attorney was elected. Of course he would have to be a resident of some Kentucky county. See § 228, Kentucky Constitution.