Corbin man who allegedly threatened city worker set to fight charges

A Corbin man accused of threatening city officials after he was fined for building code violations, will return to court at 1 p.m., April 27 with a new attorney.

At a pretrial conference Tuesday in Whitley District Court, public defender James Wren made a motion to withdraw from the case against Rondal Keith Jervis, noting Jervis intended to hire his own attorney.

District Court Judge Jason Price accepted the motion and set the case for an additional pretrial conference.

Jervis is facing one count of third-degree terroristic threatening, a class A misdemeanor, carrying a potential jail term of 90 days to one year.

Jervis allegedly called Code Enforcement Director Frank Burke’s office, and made threats to Burke’s secretary, Clara Patterson.
In addition, Jervis allegedly made a threatening phone call to Corbin City Hall.

"Some of the statements he made were interpreted as direct threats, not just to me, but for anyone involved in the case," Burke said previously.

The situation began in May when Jervis was cited for property maintenance violations at his Fifth Street home. After a hearing before the Corbin Code Enforcement Board, Jervis was fined $100 and ordered to correct the violations.

In August, Jervis was cited a second time for violating property maintenance, sanitation rubbish and junk vehicle codes. Though he requested a hearing, he failed to appear for it. He was fined a total of $2,250. The fine was later rescinded by the board after Jervis agreed to correct the problems.