The hearing for suspended Daviess County Family Court Judge Julie Gordon wrapped up Wednesday after the third day of testimonies — including Gordon taking the stand. Though the hearing is over, a final ruling will be issued at a later date. Potential outcomes range from dismissal of charges to public or private reprimand to removal from office.
The Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission commenced a public hearing Monday in the case wherein six charges were filed against Judge Gordon, primarily alleging abuse of power and misconduct.
There were numerous allegations that fell under the six charges against Judge Gordon. Some portions of those charges were dropped on Wednesday due to time constraints and standard of evidence.
While the morning consisted of a pair of 2-hour long testimonies, arguably the most noteworthy person to take the stand was Judge Gordon herself, who primarily disputed a testimony on Tuesday by Heather Cann.
Cann is the Service Region Administrator Associate for the Cabinet for Health Services. During her Tuesday testimony, Cann commented on a time during which she said Judge Gordon was acting as Dalton’s Guardian ad Litem (GAL) — which is essentially a court-appointed guardian for the duration of legal action.
Cann claimed that while Judge Gordon’s now-son Dalton was still under Cabinet custody, Judge Gordon had not gone through the Cabinet’s proper protocols while engaging with him.
However, Judge Gordon said that was far from the truth.
“We went through every kind of background check that [the Cabinet] could possibly come up with: Administrative Offices of the Courts check, TWIST check, they wanted to see our driver’s licenses, automobile insurance,” Judge Gordon said.
She added that even when Dalton wanted to study at her husband’s law office, the Cabinet asked to see his building insurance before he was able to enter the building.
Cann also claimed during her testimony that since Judge Gordon has taken office, a culture had risen of GALs interacting with their clients still under Cabinet care without following proper protocols.
Judge Gordon said she had no knowledge of this happening in the court until Cann’s testimony and had no confirmation until Wednesday morning when Amanda Bragg took to the witness stand. Judge Gordon said that she would not allow such actions of violating Cabinet protocol to happen within her court, as she considers that “to be akin to kidnapping.”
Bragg, who previously served as Judge Gordon’s Staff Attorney before moving to private practice, was the first person to testify Wednesday.
Bragg noted that while the situation was out of the norm, she had taken a client she was the GAL over into her care. Bragg said the client stayed at Bragg’s residence for two nights.
Bragg admitted Judge Gordon did not know about the situation until Wednesday, but the Cabinet and guardians were fully aware of the arrangements and Bragg had permission.
Regarding the relationship between Judge Gordon and GALs along with Cabinet members and supervisors, Bragg said she never saw or experienced any favoritism from Judge Gordon.
“She went through great effort to keep things even but also thinking through who the client and who the attorney was [when it came to assigning cases],” Bragg said.
Bragg also addressed the caseload of attorneys who served on Judge Gordon’s court — saying it ebbed and flowed — and the long court hours, but said neither were issues that were too out of the ordinary.
Bragg also said that Judge Gordon was transparent about conflicts of interest, even if some were rather extraneous.
“It was from my perspective that she disclosed too often. She always wanted to proceed on the side of caution but living in a town the size of Owensboro, you know someone who knows someone … It’s hard to find a case that doesn’t happen with,” Bragg said.
However, Jeffrey Mando, the attorney presenting the case for the JCC, stated that Judge Gordon failed to alert the court of the connection between herself and Attorney Clay Wilkey when he would present cases while Judge Gordon was presiding on the bench.
That failure to disclose information and a few other mistakes were addressed when Judge Patty Walker Fitzgerald took the witness stand. Fitzgerald typically serves as an educator for Family Court Judges throughout Kentucky as they enter the position.
Fitzgerald noted several of Judge Gordon’s actions are not unique to Daviess County.
Fitzgerald said in several instances across the state there are judges that impose a fine for appearing in court late or other reasons as Judge Gordon did. Likewise, stakeholder meetings, bringing children into the courtroom and imposing an early-morning meeting between attorneys to discuss a potential overruling of a case are all normal, Fitzgerald found.
Fitzgerald said that it all comes back to Judge Gordon’s desire to enact effective change within the Daviess County court.
Judge Gordon had an audit performed by the National Council of Juvenile Family Court Judges. Fitzgerald said the results came back with very high remarks on Judge Gordon’s performance.
“She was really trying and it was clear that the council folks who came in to do this audit were impressed with what she did, and talking with her I found that she’s very knowledgeable of the law in the area of dependency. She was able to cite chapter and verse on why she was doing things and why she was not doing things,” Fitzgerald said. “She made some mistakes and I think of them mostly are newbie mistakes and things that someone new to the bench did and would learn quickly not to do. What impressed me is she made those changes on her docket.”
Should Judge Gordon be reinstated to the bench, Fitzgerald said she would take Judge Gordon under her wing as a mentor to help her learn more things about Family Court to prevent such mistakes in the future.
Daviess County Attorney Claud Porter, who also testified Tuesday, returned to the stand and supported the notions Fitzgerald was making about Judge Gordon’s character. He stated he also didn’t know of GALs taking clients out of the custody of the Cabinet without following proper protocols.
During their closing argument, Judge Gordon’s attorney R. Kent Westberry noted that there are apparent problems with her involvement in her son’s criminal proceedings; however, Westberry said he believes Judge Gordon is not beyond being redeemed.
“We have a mechanism in place should you allow her to go back on the bench,” Westberry said. “Not just her husband Sale, who will step in and become more involved in their son’s criminal proceedings … but also I would reference the testimony of Judge Fitzgerald. She brings a lot of experience in family law to this Commonwealth and she has offered to act as a mentor, if you will, for Judge Gordon going forward.”
Mando said he believes that Judge Gordon meant the best for the city when she took the oath to serve. However, he said exterior influences may have impacted how she continued about her position.
“With Judge Gordon, that somewhere got lost along the way, and from the evidence that we presented to you — and I think in a fairly clear and convincing fashion — it wasn’t a question of whether she stepped over the line once or whether the lines were blurred. She blew right through them,” Mando said.
