Staff report

A former University of Kentucky student and Beechwood High School graduate was sentenced to a year in the Fayette County Detention Center for a November 2022 incident at a UK dorm that involved assaults and racial slurs that they made headlines around the world.

Sophia Rosing, 23, pleaded guilty to four counts of fourth-degree assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of public intoxication.

Fayette Circuit Judge Lucy VanMeter sentenced Rosing to 12 months in the Fayette County Detention Center, 100 hours of community service and a $25 fine.

She will be in protective custody at the Fayette County Detention Center because of the nature of her crimes, her attorney Fred Peters said. He also called the sentence “excessive.”

The charges were related to an incident in November 2022 in which Rosing physically assaulted and hurled racial slurs at Kylah Spring, a black student who worked at the front desk at Boyd Hall, a UK dormitory. The incident was captured on video and went viral on social media. It shows Rosing punching Spring several times and kicking her in the stomach.

In just 10 minutes, Rosing used the N-word more than 200 times. She then resisted arrest and bit a police officer who was dispatched to the scene, according to the arrest report.

The next night, Rosing posted $10,000 bail and was released from custody. The university banned him from its campus.

She was indicted by a grand jury in February 2023 and pleaded not guilty. She eventually changed that request.

State Senator Turner died of his injuries

Kentucky Sen. Johnnie Turner of Harlan died of injuries sustained in an accident last month when he and the lawn mower he was using fell into an empty pool.

Turner, 76, was a lawyer and had served in the US Army as a medic. A Republican, he has served in the state Senate since 2021, representing Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Knott and Letcher counties. He served in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2002.

Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said in a statement that “In recent weeks, his remarkable determination and strength have filled the Turner family — and all of us — with optimism, making this loss all the more difficult to bear.”

Stivers said “the loss is deeply personal to me” because he also knew Turner before they were in the Senate together.

“Johnnie spent his life lifting others up – whether through his service in the US Army, as a member of the State House of Representatives and State Senate, or in his private law practice. His unwavering commitment to the people of Eastern Kentucky — his constituents, brothers and sisters in Christ whom he so lovingly referred to as ‘his people’ — was at the heart of everything he did,” Stivers said.

Many other Kentucky officials, the governor and Sen. Mitch McConnell offered their condolences.

Turner’s family includes his wife, Maritza; Yazmin’s children, Susie and Johnnie; and grandchildren.

Turner was seeking re-election in Senate District 29 after winning a contested Republican primary in May. He faced no Democratic challenger in the general election.

Appalshop Award of Kentucky National Medal for the Humanities

Appalshop, the 55-year-old media arts nonprofit based in the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky, was among 19 recipients of the National Humanities Medals at a White House ceremony this week.

Recipients included Robin Wall Kimmerer, scientist and author; Jon Meacham, historian and author; Aaron Sorkin, playwright, screenwriter and director; Lavar Burton, actor and literacy advocate. Chef and author Anthony Bourdain has been honored posthumously.

The National Humanities Medal honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, expanded citizens’ engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources, according to a press release from the National . Endowment for the Humanities.

Applashop said in a release that since 1969 it has “helped Appalachians tell their own stories through such mediums as documentary film, radio, music, theater and more.”

Appalshop’s new chief executive, Tiffany Sturdivant, was joined at the ceremony by former chief executive Alexander Gibson and long-time staff member Tommy Anderson.