A Grayson County Constable, William I. Schroerlucke, Jr., of 118 Crossridge Drive, Leitchfield, has landed himself in hot water after allegedly failing to properly register a motor vehicle.

According to court records, on April 2 Schroerlucke was arrested, and charged with failure to register the transfer of a motor vehicle and having an improper registration plate.

A citation report filled out by Detective Terry Blanton with the Grayson County Sheriff's Department stated that Schroerlucke was "operating a motor vehicle (a 1998 Red Dodge Dakota) with tags on it that belonged on another vehicle (a 1992 Dodge truck) owned by Schroerlucke.

Schroerlucke told Blanton that he put the tags on the vehicle "because the vehicle had not been transferred over in his name."

The owner of the vehicle, William Hudson, told Blanton that he "wanted the truck back."

Blanton said that Schroerlucke was also arrested on a Bench Warrant from Hardin County, where he is facing charges of theft by deception (cold checks).

On Friday (Apr. 15) Grayson County Judge-Executive Gary Logsdon said that he, along with County Attorney Tom Goff and Sheriff David Simon are "still trying to figure out exactly what's going."

"I don't exactly understand it all, and we're still fully investigating the matter," Logsdon said.

Schroerlucke was elected constable in a special election in November of 2004 to replace Constable Steve Hutchinson, who was killed in the line of duty in June 2004.

According to state job descriptions, constables are considered peace officers with "broad powers of arrest and authority to serve court processes."

In their capacity as constables they may "execute warrants, summonses, subpoenas, attachments, notices, rules and orders of the court in all criminal, penal and civil cases."

Upon approval of the fiscal court in a county of his/her jurisdiction, a constable may also equip a vehicle used by him/her as emergency vehicles with one or more "flashing, rotating or oscillating blue lights." These rules were changed recently to require training for lights.

According to the Kentucky Constitution (Section 106), it states that "constables shall possess the same qualifications as sheriffs and their jurisdiction shall be co-extensive with the counties in which they reside."

What that means is that a constable can exercise his/her jurisdiction in any part of the county, including the cities.

In speaking about county officials, Logsdon also said that "all elected positions should be held accountable to the people they were elected to serve."