Bruce Kuegel was sworn in Friday morning to begin his third term as the Daviess County Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 6th District. Kuegel will serve six more years in the position he’s held since being appointed in 2007.
Kuegel said being the Commonwealth’s Attorney has presented him with more challenges in recent years — namely, due to the growing number of cases he’s taken on.
These aren’t petty crimes Kuegel is talking about, either.
“We’re prosecuting five different homicides over the first five months of this year — we’ve never had that type of caseload before,” Kuegel said. “Our cases in the last 11 years have more than doubled, and I don’t see any downtrend happening.”
According to Kuegel, the number of homicides in Daviess County has risen drastically over the last 28 months. What’s even more, Kuegel said the murders don’t normally involve drugs or drug trafficking and that he and his team have yet to determine the cause behind the ever-increasing number of homicides in the area.
“These are isolated incidents, of a variety of things. It’s not just drugs,” Kuegel said. “Hopefully it’s an anomaly. You wonder if things are just catching up with Daviess County.”
The increasing number of homicides has been a historically rare pattern for Daviess County, according to Cityrating.com, which had Owensboro ranked below the national average for violent crimes by 42.3 percent in 2016.
However, Kuegel reflected on the difficulty of his line of work for reasons other than a growing homicide trend.
“There’s a lot of really tough cases out here [in Daviess County], especially sexual abuse. Children being abused — those are the kind of things going on in Daviess County,” Kuegel said.
In 1998, before Kuegel was elected to the position of Daviess County Commonwealth’s Attorney, he was an attorney in private practice. Kuegel also served as a Kentucky State Police trooper for nine years.
“My career path has been one that’s brought me well beyond full circle,” Kuegel said.
Although there are cases that may be challenging, Kuegel said he feels grateful for his position and for the colleagues who work alongside him.
“I’m blessed to have a good staff to work with and my assistants are all top-notch,” Kuegel said. “I’ve been truly blessed to be in this job and to do the best I can.”
