Perry County attorney appointed special prosecutor in Clay County threat case

Perry County Attorney Derek Jorge Campbell has been appointed special prosecutor in a Clay County criminal threat case, a move that puts Hazard’s top county lawyer at the center of a sensitive prosecution outside Perry County. The case involves an alleged threat against a sitting district court judge, and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman made the appointment to bring in an outside prosecutor.

The assignment matters because special prosecutors are used when state officials want a matter handled outside the normal local chain of command. The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office says its Office of Special Prosecutions fields calls from across Kentucky, and it also says the attorney general does not supervise locally elected county and commonwealth’s attorneys. Kentucky State Police were referenced in the reporting, underscoring that the matter appears to be moving with state-level law-enforcement involvement.

For Perry County residents, the appointment is noteworthy not just because Campbell is working a neighboring county case, but because it highlights the standing he holds in eastern Kentucky legal circles. Perry County government records list him as county attorney in Hazard at 481 Main Street, Suite 2. His office was already dealing with staffing questions before this appointment: on March 21, 2025, Campbell asked the Prosecutors Advisory Council to reallocate a quarter-time Assistant County Attorney I position to a part-time Assistant County Attorney I position with additional salary funding.

That personnel request does not mean Perry County cases are being sidelined, but it does show the county attorney’s office has been actively managing workload and resources. Campbell’s new role in Clay County adds another public responsibility to an office that already serves Perry County government and local legal needs.

The available details on the Clay County case remain limited. No defendant name, case number or date of the alleged threat has been publicly identified in the material reviewed here. Even so, the appointment signals that the case is active, serious and being handled with the kind of outside oversight that usually follows allegations touching the judiciary. For Perry County, it is another reminder that the county attorney’s office can be pulled into regional matters when state leaders decide independence and trust matter as much as proximity.