Kentucky judge in Brooks Houck’s murder case declines to recuse himself

The judge in Brooks Houck’s murder case has decided to remain assigned to the case despite attempts from Houck’s lawyers to have him removed, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

Nelson County Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III had been tasked with deciding himself whether he should leave the case after the Kentucky Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue yet when Houck appealed to them. The dispute which led Houck to ask for Simms’ removal was tied to a 2017 custody case involving a woman Houck was dating at the time — an indicator of how Houck’s alleged responsibility for the death of Crystal Rogers has impacted the Bardstown community for several years.

In his ruling, Simms was clear in his stance that he didn’t have “an appearance of lack of impartiality and antagonism towards Mr. Houck,” as Houck’s lawyers asserted in their main argument for having Simms removed.

In 2017, Houck was mentioned in a custody case with Crystal Maupin, Houck’s girlfriend at the time. Simms, who also handles family court cases, presided over the custody case.

In that case, Simms ruled on whether Houck could have contact with his girlfriend’s child, and wrote that he was “simply astonished that (the woman) would want a relationship with a man who is the prime suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his previous girlfriend.”

Houck’s argument to have Simms disqualified from the case was based on that one sentence in a nine-page custody and time-sharing order, Simms said in court documents. But Simms ruled that the one sentence wasn’t grounds for his removal, because Simms ultimately ruled favorably for Houck in that case: he granted him contact with Maupin’s child despite an objection from the child’s father.

“Had this judge been prejudiced and biased against Brooks, it is simply unimaginable that Brooks would have prevailed on every issue related to him,” Simms said.

Simms wrote in his new order that he used the word “astonished” in the 2017 writing because there was evidence the child could be negatively impacted by Houck and Maupin’s relationship. Court documents indicate negative impacts were piling up at the time: Maupin was fired from her job over her relationship, some of Houck’s cattle had been shot, lugnuts had gone missing from his truck and Maupin had been harassed over the relationship.

In Simms’ new order, he again defended his decision to set Houck’s bond at $10 million, which even Simms acknowledged was an “outlier” amount. Houck has repeatedly tried to have the bond lowered, making it one of the issues he raised to the state supreme court.

Simms said Houck has access to lots of money, as he owns businesses that hold dozens of properties in Nelson County. Tax assessments for 66 of his 83 properties in the area indicate they’re worth about $8.5 million, Simms wrote. Additionally, Simms is still concerned that Houck wouldn’t cooperate with the terms of his release if he posted bond, citing the allegations of Nick Houck’s involvement in Tommy Ballard’s death and the Houck family illegally recording grand jury proceedings. The safety of potential cooperating witnesses would be at-risk if Houck were released, Simms wrote.

Houck argued that he was assessed by the court to be “low risk” for fleeing the region or committing another crime while on bond, but Simms said Houck’s assessments weren’t helpful because he has limited criminal history.

“All defendants with a limited criminal history are assessed as a low risk,” Simms wrote in his order this week. “In fact, this judge would submit that these individuals would be classified as low risk for flight under this state’s pretrial assessment: O.J. Simpson (on his double murder charges), the Boston Marathon bombers, Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Eric Conn.”

Simms also wrote that when a grand jury considered Houck’s $10 million bond, one of the jurors suggested it be doubled.

“When this judge queried the grand jury about the reasonableness of (the bond), one juror promptly said ‘double it’ while others shook their heads in agreement,” Simms wrote.

The issue is now likely to go back to the state supreme court. Kentucky Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter previously ordered that Simms should get a say in whether he recuses himself, but that if he didn’t, VanMeter would consider whether to disqualify the judge.

Houck, 42, of Bardstown, was indicted in September on charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Rogers, his former girlfriend, who was last seen in July 2015. He has pleaded not guilty.