Several witnesses were called to the stand during day two of suspended Daviess County Family Court Judge Julie Gordon’s hearing in Bowling Green, including a few employees in the Daviess County court system along with people involved in various capacities regarding cases involving Gordon’s son.
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.
Arguably the most notable testimony on Tuesday was from Clay Wilkey of Wilkey & Wilson P.S.C. Wilkey has been practicing in Owensboro since 2007, and since 2017 has been focusing primarily on domestic relations cases. He said he has known Judge Gordon since before she was elected Family Court Judge in 2018.
Wilkey testified for nearly an hour.
Due to his collegial relationship with Judge Gordon, when Wilkey was hired to represent her son Dalton he sought the advice of the Ethics Hotline at the Kentucky Bar Association. Wilkey said he explained the situation to someone on the hotline and was advised it would not be an issue.
“The response I got back was essentially, I’m paraphrasing here, ‘yes, it is a small town, he’s entitled to representation and you’re entitled to earn a living,’” Wilkey said. “And based on that ethics opinion I agree to represent Mr. Gordon in a criminal case.”
Wilkey said that he provided copy of the representation agreement, which he said showed Dalton as the client and Sale Gordon (Dalton’s father and Judge Gordon’s husband) as a surety.
Wilkey testified he had no communication with Judge Gordon beyond that of a concerned mother.
According to the review, in 2017 there were 274 exchanges with Judge Gordon about Dalton; in 2018 there were 30; in 2019 there were 44; in 2020 there were 231; and in 2021 there were 60.
According to one of the conversations submitted to evidence, in October 2020 Wilkey and Judge Gordon were discussing ways to keep the decision for Dalton to change his last name “from being front page news,” as Judge Gordon said in the text to Wilkey.
Through text, Wilkey continued the conversation by saying it’ll be newsworthy regardless of the attachment.
He then sent to Judge Gordon, “Please delete these messages,” according to the evidence presented.
Wilkey said Judge Gordon instantly deleted the messages but that he did not, out of personal practice. He said he likely did it out of caution.
“I’m glad she was taking my advice, it’s a shame I wasn’t following,” Wilkey said during his testimony.
As presented with evidence, in another text conversation between Wilkey and Judge Gordon, she conveyed to Wilkey that she needed to find a way to get Dalton to Wilkey with cash so that “he can hand you money toward his bill;” Wilkey replied that the exchange would be acceptable.
Wilkey noted that he did not receive money from Dalton that day and said that his bills also reflect that. He also said that when receiving cash, he often does not think to give the client a receipt for the transaction.
The court noted that this testimony contradicted his previous statement to Gene Weaver (investigator in the case) before the proceeding began and also contradicted Wilkey’s statement earlier in Tuesday’s hearing.
When questioned, Wilkey admitted that he had misled Weaver and said it fell back on his relationship with Judge Gordon.
“My recollection is Judge Gordon shared [that information] with me and asked me not to tell anybody that she had [given him allegations],” Wilkey said. “And I think out of a sense of being true to my word to her, I didn’t tell anybody she had done that. In hindsight, that was a mistake and I own it up.”
The next person to take the stand was Daviess County Circuit Judge Jay Wethington, who spoke highly of his experience with Judge Gordon. He noted that when she joined the staff, she had to essentially build a court from nothing as there was not a Daviess County Family Court Judge prior to her.
Wethington said he was not privy to most of the discussions that occurred around Judge Gordon, as he tried to refrain from such conversations in his position as Chief Circuit Judge because it called for him to attend to other things.
Even with the investigations, Wethington noted that if Judge Gordon was to be reinstated he would happily bring her back on staff.
“Of course [I’d welcome her back], I know that she will do the work. I know that she has the interest of the community at heart,” Wethington said.
Next, Vickie Maden appeared before the commission. She has worked in Daviess County District Court as a Deputy Clerk for about 12 years, and said she recalled an instance when Judge Gordon asked her to watch a proceeding over District Judge John McCarty.
Maden said being asked to watch over a courtroom made her feel uncomfortable and she denied Judge Gordon’s request saying they shouldn’t. Judge Gordon conceded and removed the request.
Heather Cann, Service Region Administrator Associate for the Cabinet for Health Services, was the next to testify. She has worked in that office for 22 years, and noted that during her tenure she presided over some cases that were directly under Judge Gordon.
She said at times, Judge Gordon would arrive late to court proceedings — in some cases 2 hours late — and once extended the court proceedings to 12:30 a.m.
Cann also said that under Judge Gordon, all members of the family were called to be in the courtroom during proceedings.
Cann claimed that there were drug tests conducted by Judge Gordon — but not while she was present — and that all urine samples were stored in the workers’ fridge that only staff had access to.
Cann then said a potential “concerning” relationship between Judge Gordon and her now son Dalton occurred prior to the Gordons receiving custody of Dalton. She said when Judge Gordon was still an attorney and Cann was a supervisor in her department, the judge would take Dalton home with her and on trips throughout the town among other things.
“We’re concerned that boundaries are being crossed, that it seems like this one child is getting special treatment versus any other child,” Cann said. “Because they would take him out of town, take him to eat, buy him clothes, buy him a tablet, whatever it was.”
Cann said Judge Gordon was acting as Dalton’s Guardian ad Litem (GAL) — which is essentially a court appointed guardian for the duration of a legal action.
Cann claimed that while Dalton was still under Cabinet custody, Judge Gordon had not gone through the Cabinet’s proper protocols while engaging with Dalton. This was alarming to her, as Cann claimed that Dalton would spend nights at the Gordon household.
Cann said that continued on after Judge Gordon was elected to the position, and said that more GALs were continuing the behavior of interacting with children in Cabinet care without following proper protocols.
Cann said she brought the concern forward, and alleged that during a meeting with the rest of the supervisors Judge Gordon said there would be ramifications for complaints.
“She even told us in a meeting … that if we continue to file motions against what she’s ordering, she would have us there at 6 or 7 a.m. and late at night on the weekends,” Cann said. “And we just all sat there in awe that she would say this in front of all of us, but then also we were fearful because we knew it would come true if we continue to file motions against her orders.”
Since Judge Gordon agreed to a temporary suspension from the bench, Cann said that the act of GALs taking clients home has ceased under the leadership of the judges filling in the Family Court role.
Janelle Farley, an attorney in Daviess County, also talked about an experience where she felt she was cut from a caseload due to personal relationships with Judge Gordon. Evidence showed that a conversation between the two called Judge Gordon to question Farley’s ability to properly represent families with drug abuse.
Earlier proceedings on Tuesday included more testimony from Judge Gordon (who spent all day Monday on the stand) along with testimonies from defense attorney Heather Blackburn, Daviess County Attorney Claud Porter, and Daviess County Jailer Art Maglinger.
Blackburn works at the Public Defender’s Office in Owensboro. She testified for just more than 20 minutes, addressing a specific incident that occurred when Blackburn was representing Dalton.
Blackburn said Dalton was scheduled for a pretrial conference and was currently in custody for a case in which he was facing a fourth-degree assault charge, with Judge Gordon as the victim of the assault.
Blackburn said it appeared Judge Daniel M. Burlew II (who retired from his Daviess District Court Judge seat in 2021) talked ex parte to Judge Gordon regarding the case. An ex parte communication is a communication with the judge where only one party is present.
Blackburn said Burlew should have never talked to Judge Gordon without Dalton or Blackburn present, especially because Judge Gordon was the victim in the case.
After a brief lunch, proceedings resumed with Maglinger. He said when Dalton was in the Daviess County Detention Center serving time, visitations with Judge Gordon would be set up under the surveillance of Maglinger in his office.
This setup was out of the norm, Maglinger said, but it was done as an act of best practices for discretion because it provided a witness — Maglinger — in case Dalton was to be a target for manipulation.
Maglinger said he supervised the entirety of each meeting. The visitations occurred a handful of times over the course of several weeks, according to Maglinger’s testimony.
To add to the abnormality of the meeting, Maglinger said Judge Gordon would often bring some food for Dalton to eat while in the meeting. Maglinger said that is usually not allowed, as inmates only receive snacks and meals from the commissary and outside parties aren’t supposed to bring in food.
Prior to this week’s hearing, two people also gave depositions in lieu of live testimony because they had planned vacations this week. Depositions for Cortney Skinner, a family court case manager, and Kim Emberton, a deputy clerk that supervises Family Court matters, were taken on March 24.
The hearing will continue Wednesday. Up to 5 days have been allotted for the hearing, though it could take weeks for the JCC to issue a final order regarding any dismissal or reprimands.
