For the third time in recent months, Attorney General Russell Coleman has intervened to challenge a decision by Fayette County Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.
In June, Coleman requested a murder case be reinstated against a man whose charges were dismissed by Goodman late last year because of a lack of evidence. That case is pending.
In a high-profile case, he touted an “extraordinary” filing this month after an appeals court sided with his decision to step in and order a man recently released on bond be sent back to prison, reversing Goodman’s ruling.
And then, on Wednesday, Coleman announced his office had appealed Goodman’s decision to grant probation to a man who pleaded guilty to dealing fentanyl, calling the sentence “unlawful” and “lenient.”
The trend of repeatedly challenging decisions by a single judge is unusual, experts say. One described the method used by Coleman to intervene in the case of the man released on bond as “legal warfare.”
But Coleman argued he’s not singling out Judge Goodman. Rather, he says, he seeks out cases from across the state where he feels his office needs to intervene.
“We would zealously seek appellate relief from rulings of the Fayette Circuit Court or any other court,” Kevin Grout, spokesperson for Coleman’s office, said.
Goodman declined to comment on the seeming discord between her office and the attorney general, instead opting to talk only about the facts of the individual cases.
“As a judge, I would never allow this community to be in danger,” Goodman said in an interview after the second of the three cases in which Coleman intervened. “I have always followed the court of appeals’ instructions, and did so in this circumstance.”
Gregory Simpson’s case
At the center of the second interjection by Coleman’s office is the case of Gregory Simpson.
Simpson, a Louisville man, had 17 felony convictions dating back to 1997, including theft, evading police, and assault. On several occasions, he was released on parole and then landed back in jail for another low-level felony.
Those previous convictions meant Simpson was slapped with persistent felony offender status by the state, a statute that can double or triple the maximum sentence for a crime if a person repeatedly breaks the law throughout their lives.
When factoring in the parole violations, by last year Simpson had accumulated a total prison sentence of 42 years for a litany of crimes.
But last September, he filed a legal document known as a writ of habeas corpus petition — a submission by a prisoner arguing they are being unlawfully detained.
He argued his sentence was unlawful and he should have to serve only a maximum sentence of 20 years, based on new case law established by the state Supreme Court that determined a Kentucky man had been over-sentenced for several shoplifting incidents in Boyd County.
In January, Goodman sided with Simpson and ruled his sentence was unlawful. A bond was set for Simpson, and he was placed on home incarceration with an ankle monitor for the final 21 years of his sentence.
Warden Abigail Caudill, who housed Simpson at Lexington’s Blackburn Correctional Complex, appealed the decision, arguing Simpson had misinterpreted the case law. The attorney general’s office joined the effort and asked for Simpson’s bond to be revoked.
And the court of appeals agreed — partially. They ordered Simpson to be placed back in custody but denied the attorney general’s request for his bond to be revoked.
Goodman complied with the decision and reversed her approval of Simpson’s petition.
But there was yet more legal wrangling. With Simpson’s bond still in place, Goodman argued he could not be placed back in custody. Goodman wrote to the appeals court seeking clarification on how to proceed. But that clarification could have taken days or even weeks. Meanwhile, Simpson was still appealing his case to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
When Simpson was not immediately sent back to detention, the attorney general’s office intervened again, this time more forcefully. Coleman filed an order called a writ of mandamus, from the Latin word for “we command,” directing Goodman’s court to fulfill its legal obligations — in this case, to put Simpson back in prison.
Coleman’s office argued Simpson was a danger to the community, and allowing him to remain free could cause “irreparable harm,” and a severe miscarriage of justice.
“It is undisputed that every time Simpson has been released from custody on parole, he has committed either technical parole violations or committed new offenses. Simpson’s inability to comply with the conditions of release make him a danger to society,” the office wrote in court documents.
In her reply, Goodman said she was not attempting to give the higher court “the end runaround,” as suggested by Coleman’s office.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Goodman wrote. “Rather, (Goodman’s) orders were entered in good faith with the full intent of complying with the mandates of the Appellate Court while allowing the Defendant his right to remain out on bond…pending his appeal.”
An appeals court ultimately sided agreed with the attorney general’s office. It repealed Simpson’s bond on July 31, Goodman ordered him back to prison two days later.
A ‘lenient sentence’ for a fentanyl dealer
Coleman is showing no signs of slowing down his challenges of Goodman’s office.
On Wednesday, Coleman’s office announced it was appealing Goodman’s decision to sentence to probation a man who pleaded guilty to felony drug charges for trafficking fentanyl.
Domonick Jones was arrested last October after Kentucky State Police found 75 grams of fentanyl in his car during a traffic stop. He was charged with a Class B felony — the second-most serious in Kentucky — but eventually pleaded guilty to a Class C felony.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of five years, but Goodman instead offered Jones probation, which prosecutors did not object to at the time. But prosecutors later argued that the sentence broke state law, as it was more lenient than sentencing guidelines allowed.
And on Wednesday, the state’s top law enforcement official announced an appeal of the sentence.
The attorney general’s appeal was applauded Fayette County’s top prosecutor, Kimberly Henderson Baird, who is collaborating with Coleman on the appeal.
“The law is clear: Those convicted of trafficking fentanyl in Kentucky and endangering the lives of its citizens by selling fentanyl to them are to be sentenced to prison,” Baird said in the news release from Coleman’s office. “I’m glad to join Attorney General Coleman in seeking to uphold the law and seek the appropriate punishment for this defendant.”
‘Legal warfare’
Two legal experts agreed that Coleman’s use of a writ of mandamus in the Simpson case was unusual.
Paul Salamanca, the acting dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law, said the procedure is used only when a “bell is about to be rung that can’t be unrung.”
And even more rare is for an appeals court to grant the request, he said.
“Courts relatively never grant it, so lawyers rarely ask for it,” he said. It’s used when something will or won’t happen that will cause significant damage that cannot be undone.
Martín Sabelli, a legal expert who has taught for more than 20 years at the National Criminal Defense College in Georgia, agreed on the rarity — and severity — of such a move.
“I would say that the use of this tool in this context borders on legal warfare by the government on a judge who has not abused her powers,” he said.
Sabelli, who does not practice law in Kentucky, argued that Goodman appeared to follow the proper course of action: following the guidance of the higher court, but allowing for further litigation.
“The State appears to have done an end-run around her rulings using this mechanism,” Sabelli said.
And Dan Canon, a civil rights lawyer and law professor at the University of Louisville, said the public back-and-forth between the attorney general and Goodman’s court was “unusual, but not unheard of.”
“The AG is a politician, and he knows what any lawyer who isn’t hopelessly naive also knows, which is: Publicity can affect the outcome of the case — especially when elected judges are making the decisions,” Canon said.
Local Georgia State
Most Popular
Comments / 0