Voters say 'no' to ousted judge who vowed to run for election to get her job back
A Family Court judge whose misconduct was so egregious she was unanimously removed from office, then audaciously sought to return to the bench, will not be getting her job back.
Julie Hawes Gordon finished third in a three-candidate primary race Tuesday in Daviess County and will not be on the November ballot.
She did not respond to a request for comment.
The two candidates who will meet in the fall are Jennifer Hendricks, who had 7,270 votes, and Thomas Vallandingham, who got 4,393.
Gordon, the incumbent, drew only 3,237 votes.
Previously: Kentucky judge removed for misconduct vows to seek reelection. Why the law won't stop her
Gordon was allowed to run under a loophole in Kentucky that allows removed judges to seek election as long as it is not in a special election to fill the rest of their term.
None of the three candidates raised or spent much on the primary contest, according to their most recent campaign finance reports. Gordon and Vallandingham raised no money, while Hendricks raised $5,500 and spent 4,478.
Les Abramson, who teaches ethics at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, said removing a judge is the most serious sanction and means she “has so badly violated the Code of Judicial Conduct she should never have this position of trust in the future."
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But Steve Wolnitzek, former chair of the Judicial Conduct Commission, said "if the good people of Davies County want her back, let them have her.”
The Courier Journal reported that in at least 16 states, including Indiana, a removed judge is ineligible to serve in a judicial office again, according to the most recently available data from the American Judicature Society.
Gordon was thrown off the bench in April in part for her conduct after her son was charged with assaulting her. The six-member commission said she destroyed evidence and lobbied the judge presiding in her son’s case for leniency.
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The panel also said she required parents and their children to appear in court after midnight and ordered untrained office staff to test defendants for drugs, then stored the samples in a refrigerator where they keep their lunch.
Gordon is appealing her removal to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which experts say almost never reverses decisions from the commission.
Gordon claims the commission failed to consider Marsy’s Law, the constitutional amendment that provides rights to crime victims.
Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky judge removed for misconduct fails in primary re-election bid
