Central Kentucky detective and public defenders who criticized him settle lawsuit

A Franklin County sheriff’s deputy and the group of public defenders he sued after they wrote a letter complaining about his attendance at former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally have reached a settlement, according to the attorney for the deputy.

Franklin County Detective Jeff Farmer filed a federal lawsuit against five Franklin County public defenders who wrote a letter to Sheriff Chris Quire on Jan. 8, 2021 criticizing Farmer’s presence at the Washington, D.C., event, as well as his police record.

Farmer claimed in the lawsuit filed in the of the Eastern District of Kentucky that the public defenders had defamed him, invaded his privacy and retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights. He asked for more than $1 million in damages.

Last fall, Chief U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell dismissed the suit, but Farmer’s attorney had filed a notice stating that he planned to appeal.

Farmer’s attorney, Chris Wiest, said in a statement Friday that the settlement “included a financial payment to Detective Farmer,” which he said “demonstrated that there are and will be consequences to dragging someone’s name through the mud.” He said in an email that the “defendants arranged the payment.”

An attorney for the public defenders, R. Kenyon Meyer, said in a statement: “Mr. Farmer’s lawsuit about his activities on January 6 in Washington D.C. was dismissed by the court. He lost. Mr. Farmer’s lawyer’s statement that any of the public defenders agreed to pay or paid money to Mr. Farmer is false.”

Wiest said Saturday afternoon that “there was a check written.” He said he was not allowed to disclose the amount.

“It came from like a law firm in Chicago,” he said. “I’m not privy to how that was funded.”

“We would not have settled the case unless there was a payment involved,” he said.

Farmer “did not follow the crowd to the Capitol after that rally, and instead returned to his hotel room,” Wiest’s statement said. “The letter penned by the public defenders prompted a thorough and independent investigation by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and an outside investigator, which ultimately found the allegations within the letter to be baseless.”

He said the settlement also included a statement by one of the defendants, Nathan Goodrich, former directing attorney of the Frankfort Trial Office of the Department of Public Advocacy, saying that “The parties have mutually agreed to end the litigation. Defendants do not admit any liability in this matter and regret any undue impact this had on the Farmer family. All parties have agreed to move forward to focus on better protecting and serving the citizens of Franklin County.”

Wiest said Farmer plans to retire from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in October.