A Kentucky lawyer ran against the judge on her contentious divorce case. She won, kind of.
Editor's note: This story contains language that might be offensive to some readers.
A lawyer who filed to run for Family Court in Oldham, Henry and Trimble counties against the incumbent judge presiding over her contentious divorce is one step closer to serving on the bench.
Joni Bottorff was the second-highest vote-getter in the three-person race Tuesday, meaning she will move on to the general election in November.
She got 37% of the vote to 47% for first-place finisher Doreen Goodwin, the incumbent. Todd Bolus finished third.
The Courier Journal reported in February that Bottorff, whose practice is focused on estate planning and probate, had never filed a divorce case or practiced family law, according to court records.
But by entering the race, Bofforff forced Goodwin to recuse herself from her long-running divorce case in which Goodwin twice found Bottorff in contempt of court.
Records in the divorce and custody case show Bottorff allegedly threatened to shoot her former spouse, Joseph Waterman, with a 9 mm handgun, bash him over the head with a baseball bat and run him over with a truck.
They also show she called Waterman, who is Jewish, "a fat f---ing Jew" and told him to “go worship your money.”
The allegations were filed in court papers by Waterman's lawyer, Louis Winner. Bottorff didn’t deny she made the threats or uttered the anti-Semitic slurs, according to records in the case, which is still pending.
Goodwin was forced to withdraw from the case because of the conflict of interest in presiding over a case against her primary opponent.
None of the three candidates raised or spent much on the race.
Bottorff, who lives in Crestwood, spent the most, $8,587, compared with $3,851 for Goodwin, who lives in La Grange, and Bolus, also from La Grange, who spent $2,900, according to their most recent campaign finance reports.
Citing ethics rules that bar commenting on pending cases, Bottorff declined to comment on the allegations against her in the divorce case.
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But "The Committee to Elect Joni Judge," whose members Bottorff refused to name, said the allegations from Bottorff's ex-husband’s attorney, who "has earned tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, from our candidate’s case."
In an email, the committee said if Bottorf wins, she would be the only family law judge to serve in the 12th District who has "personally been through the divorce process … and boy has she been through it!”
Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Lawyer advances to November election against judge on her divorce case
