Fayette Co. judge will not recuse from murder case after prosecutors allege bias

A Fayette Circuit Court judge determined she will not recuse herself from a murder case after local prosecutors alleged the judge is biased against the Fayette Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.

Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird asked Judge Julie Muth Goodman to recuse herself from a murder case against Darryl Russell on Jan. 12, days before his trial was scheduled to begin, alleging the judge has a personal bias against the prosecutor’s office and could not be impartial.

On Tuesday afternoon, Goodman denied the commonwealth’s motion to take herself off the case.

“If judges risked recusal simply by finding prosecutorial misconduct, no judge would ever do it, and the Commonwealth would be absolutely immune from consequences, which the law dictates that they are not,” she wrote.

Baird’s request for Goodman to step down came just weeks after Goodman accused Baird’s office of seeking disproportionately harsh punishments against minority defendants while dismissing a murder case which involved a Black defendant, Cornell Thomas, who had been driving in a fatal wreck.

Goodman dismissed the case in December 2023 based on lack of evidence to support the legal requirements to charge for murder.

In that dismissal ruling, Goodman said she had observed a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct and disparate treatment based on race by prosecutors.

On Monday, Goodman and Baird met in the courtroom and had a contentious debate about the motion regarding the case against Russell, 53, charged in March 2022 with the murder of 18-year-old Darian Webb, the son of Russell’s longtime girlfriend.

Baird and Goodman were talking over one another and at some points, using loud voices and even cutting the other off from speaking.

“The Commonwealth has valid concerns that this Court cannot try this case in a free, disinterested impartial, and independent manner,” Baird wrote in her originally motion to recuse. “Unfortunately, during its 5-year tenure in Circuit Court, this Court has made it abundantly clear that it does not treat the Commonwealth with the respect and fairness that is accorded the defense bar.”

Baird said Goodman’s comments in her original order were “rude,” and “snippy,” that Goodman commonly sides in favor of the defendants and blames victim. Baird also took issue that Goodman accused her office in a public manner, instead of calling her office directly.

However, Baird admitted in the hearing that racial inequities exist.

“I recognize there’s disparate charging at times,” she said.

When asked if she recognized there was differing racial treatment towards defendants, Baird confirmed, “I do, but it doesn’t mean I am racially profiling people.”

Defendant ‘caught in the crosshairs’

Abe Mashni, Russell’s attorney, asked the motion be denied, and said the commonwealth’s claims were not substantive enough for Goodman to recuse herself.

Mashni said it was clear that his client, Russell, was “caught in the crosshairs,” of “certain hostilities” that were “incredibly clear.”

Mashni wrote in his response “none of the Commonwealth’s bases for disqualification support recusal of this Court.” Mashni said in court documents prosecutors’ motion wasn’t timely, did not provide corresponding evidence and the judge’s comments did not rise to a level which warranted her recusal.

In two separate responses to the motion, Mashni said in some instances the commonwealth misquoted Goodman, and misrepresented statements from the victim.

Overall, Mashni said he and Russell were ready for their day in court, but with this motion’s filing, they have been “thrown into the mix.”

“We were ready to go to court. We wanted to go to court but we were caught in the cross hairs,” he said Monday. “We were ready to try a case.”

The Thomas case ruling, which spawned the recusal motions, is on appeal with the Supreme Court. Baird said on Monday that depending on their ruling, as well as Goodman’s for the Russell case, she will plan “100%” to file motions for Good to recuse on all cases.

“If the commonwealth had its druthers, I would have filed a motion to recuse after that order and in every single case we have,” Baird said.