Ex-prosecutor, embroiled in nude-images scandal, skips impeachment hearing
FRANKFORT, Ky. − Suppose you threw an impeachment hearing – the first in the Kentucky Senate in 135 years – and the most important guest did not show up.
That is what happened Tuesday when a Senate impeachment panel held a hearing on whether to recommend the conviction of former prosecutor Ronnie Goldy Jr. to the full Senate and neither he nor his lawyer showed up to mount a defense.
Goldy has already been suspended from practicing law after The Courier Journal reported on messages that suggested he had traded court favors with a defendant in exchange for nude images of her.
And the House impeached him by a 97-0 vote in February, despite him announcing the previous day that he would resign from his position at the end of that month.
Now the Senate impeachment panel – the first since state Treasurer “Honest Dick” Tate was convicted in 1888 for fleeing the country with nearly $200,000 of state money – is deciding whether to recommend his conviction on articles of impeachment approved by the House. If convicted by the full Senate, it would permanently bar him from holding any public office.
Three members of the House impeachment committee delivered an opening statement denouncing the conduct of Goldy, who was commonwealth’s attorney for Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties.
Rep. Jason Nemes told the Senate panel Goldy’s misconduct was “as bad as it gets,” short of murder.
Prosecutor Brian Wright, the commonwealth’s attorney for Adair and Casey counties, testified that Goldy repeatedly talked to the defendant without her defense lawyer present, a clear violation of ethics rules.
Rep. Daniel Elliott, who chaired the House impeachment committee, told his Senate counterparts Goldy’s conduct was egregious and the “textbook definition of a quid pro quo,” in which he continued court dates and pulled warrants for the woman in exchange for nude images.
But when Senate impeachment panel Chairman Brandon Storm, R-London, asked if Goldy or his lawyer wanted to deliver his own opening statement – or mount a defense – there was silence. Neither Goldy nor Louisville attorney Timothy Denison, who has represented him, was present. Denison did not respond to an email or phone message asking why they skipped the hearing.
The Senate committee members went into closed session to review the voluminous record on Goldy compiled in the House, but Storm asked the House panel to submit written findings, which it said it could not do until Monday.
No additional meetings of the Senate committee were scheduled, and it was unclear when the matter might be resolved.
Goldy has been embroiled in scandal since July, when The Courier Journal first reported on hundreds of Facebook messages he exchanged with the woman.
The Kentucky Commonwealth's Attorneys' Association removed him from the organization and the Kentucky Supreme Court suspended him from practicing law, though they could not remove him from office — an action that could only be taken by the Kentucky General Assembly through impeachment.
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Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at awolfson@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky prosecutor Ronnie Goldy Jr. skips impeachment hearing
