Following Suspension and Reprimand for Misconduct, Ex Kentucky Judge Remains Unrepentant

by David Reutter

The Kentucky Judicial conduct Commission (JCC) publicly reprimanded a retired judge for “reprehensible” behavior that included a threat to strangle a lawyer and refusing to allow a pro se civil litigant to argue his case.

The JCC suspended Judge Martin McDonald in June 2013 after it learned of his conduct in the two separate cases. In response to the suspension, McDonald’s attorney, Tim Dennison, said, “Judge McDonald feels that the action was taken solely to sully the McDonald reputation.”

When it heard the matter that charged McDonald with two counts of misconduct in office, the JCC viewed a videotape of McDonald’s conduct at a Sept. 28, 2012, hearing of the death-penalty appeal of Roger D. Epperson, who was convicted of a 1985 double homicide.

At that hearing, McDonald told public defender David Barron that “if you ever call me on my cell phone again, I’ll strangle you.” He also threatened to have Barron’s law license “yanked” if he made such calls again. He then ordered Epperson be brought from the holding cell, stating “bring his carcass out here.”

Looking disheveled, McDonald said Barron’s allegations “have bordered on the ridiculous.” He stated Barron was making a mountain out of a molehill “and referred to appellate defense attorneys as ‘backseat drivers.’”

“You’ve never been in the heat of battle in one of these cases, and now you’re criticizing lawyers that actually are real lawyers that do the work, the dirty work, the down-in-the-trenches work.” said McDonald.

In the civil case, McDonald said the pro se defendant was not an attorney, so he refused to allow him to present argument. McDonald found for the plaintiff and awarded $11,000 in attorney fees.

At an August 2013 hearing, the JCC unanimously found McDonald guilty of the two counts of misconduct, and it issued the strongest available penalty. “Were Judge McDonald still a member of the Kentucky Judiciary, a much more severe sanction, perhaps including removal from the bench would have been warranted and would have been ordered,” wrote JCC chair Stephen Wolnitzek in a 12-page order.

McDonald retired following his suspension, and in the wake of the JCC’s findings and reprimand he was unrepentant. He called the JCC “clowns who can’t figure out they don’t have authority over me. I’m tired. I’m done.”

Sources: www.courierpress.com, www.courier-journal.com, www.whas11.com

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login