A Kentucky county prosecutor has been fired one month after being suspended for making comments that were dubbed "mean-spirited" and derogatory.
Karl Price, who served the Jefferson County Attorney's Office for 25 years, was given a pink slip Tuesday after failing to give a proper apology, the Courier Journal reported.
That request, which would have saved his employment, followed Price making a number of crude statements.
It included him calling Asian-American business owners who wouldn't settle a case "greedy foreigners" who were probably "illegal aliens," WHAS reported.
During an earlier arraignment, when confronted with a black defendant accused of running away from police, Price, who is black himself, reportedly remarked: "I thought you black guys could run, but you never get away from police."
When hearing a defendant charged with receiving stolen property ask a judge to be released from jail to go to school, Price also reportedly asked, "Where do you go to school? At a pawn shop?”
First Assistant County Attorney Julie Hardesty sent him a written warning on July 10, telling him that an apology was needed for his comments which she called "neither funny nor appropriate."
Price responded by arguing that he was being unfairly treated and punished harder than other prosecutors.
"I have not committed a crime," he responded to Hardesty's request. "I have never appeared for my duties intoxicated. I have never ex parte'd a judge. I have not violated the rules of professional responsibility."
He said he apologized "if I have offended anyone," but stated that "if there is more you want, I am prepared to accept your threat of termination, if that is the wishes of the office."
County Attorney Mike O'Connell called his response a "hollow gesture" and "not an apology at all" while signing his termination letter.
