In unprecedented move, Kentucky House votes to impeach Fayette Circuit Judge Goodman

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky House of Representatives on Friday voted to impeach a Fayette County judge after a committee issued articles of impeachment against her earlier this week.

In a 73-to-14 vote Friday, the House approved the articles of impeachment against Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman, sending the matter to the Senate for a trial.

The vote was largely along party lines. GOP Rep. Daniel Elliott was the only Republican present to vote against it; Rep. Adam Moore was the only Democrat present to vote in favor.

Killian Timoney, a former Republican lawmaker seeking to win back his Lexington-area House seat this year, filed the petition in January, arguing Goodman had abused her office. The seat is currently held by Moore.

On Monday, the special Impeachment Committee heard testimony from Goodman, who has served as a judge for 18 years, having been elected by Fayette County voters six times. By Wednesday, the House committee drafted articles of impeachment that say Goodman defied binding precedents and statutes enacted by the General Assembly, and interfered with the rights and powers of judicial bodies.

“(Goodman) was intentionally wrong, she lacked legal authority, yet she proceeded and did it anyway,” GOP Rep. Jason Nemes said Friday. “This is not a judge who made a mistake; this is something else entirely.”

The impeachment marks the first against a sitting judge in more than 100 years in Kentucky, and the first ever under the state’s modern court system.

Robert McBride, one of Goodman’s attorneys, said the vote to impeach “was expected given the composition of the House.” The body is comprised of 80 Republicans and 20 Democrats.

“The impeachment of Judge Goodman is a historic error and may well serve to undermine the independence of our judicial system,” McBride told The Lexington Herald-Leader in a statement. “Judge Goodman did not commit a misdemeanor in office.”

Nemes, the Impeachment Committee chair, laid out six cases mentioned in the petition, all of which claim Goodman abused her judicial discretion and authority.

Nemes said he brought forth the articles of impeachment with “a heavy heart.”

“And what I want every judge in this commonwealth, every judge walking watching the proceedings on television or who might read about it in a newspaper, what I want those judges to hear?” Nemes said. “I want them to hear this directly: You need not fear impeachment for doing your job to the best of your ability.”

House Resolution 124, sponsored by Nemes, spells out five articles of impeachment:

—Article I: Goodman abused the powers of the office she holds.

—Article II: Goodman “defied binding precedents” established by higher courts.

—Article III: Goodman did not follow state statutes or rules set by the Kentucky Court of Justice.

—Article IV: Goodman “interfered with the rights and powers of the grand jury, trial court jurors, attorneys, and others to perform their respective roles.”

—Article V: The conduct described in the first four articles constitute a misdemeanor in office, warranting impeachment and removal.

Goodman and her legal team have argued that several of the cases at issue in the petition are still active, and therefore she is ethically bound not to speak about the cases.

“I am duty-bound to not defend myself,” she told the committee Monday.

However, in a minority report from the committee, two lawmakers said the impeachment proceedings should not continue. Rep. Pamela Stevenson and Rep. Al Gentry, both Democrats, signed the report, which argued the original petition was not complete, the proceedings violated due process and that there was no impeachable conduct alleged.

Stevenson, an attorney, spoke against the impeachment Friday, as did Elliott, who said he felt impeachment was improper. Elliott, the House Judiciary chair and an attorney, was a non-voting member of the impeachment committee; he chaired the Impeachment Committee in 2023, the last time the House voted to impeach an official.

“We are setting a new standard this morning, if we do this,” Elliott urged.

Rep. Joshua Watkins, a Democrat, said the House should not vote to impeach Goodman because it was not clear on what the actual “impeachable offenses” are.

“If I were to ask 10 people in this body to define the impeachable conduct in this case, I would be a betting man to believe that I would get 10 different answers,” Watkins said. “And I think that is the problem, because if that standard is unclear today, then that lack of clarity becomes the standard for tomorrow.”

What the members could agree on, was that, whatever decision they came to, it would change Kentucky political history, he said.

“This moment today is going to be discussed in classrooms and law schools and in public life for many years to come,” Watkins said. “What we do here today will matter long after each and everyone of us leaves this sacred institution, and how we leave this institution will matter to our children, to their children and to their children.”

Goodman and her attorneys filed a request for an emergency injunction last week in Franklin Circuit Court saying the proceedings violated her due process. However, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd declined to intervene on the proceedings, twice. He said if he were to stop the proceedings as they are ongoing, it could be a violation of separation of powers.

Shepherd did say that he could consider issuing a ruling at a later time, but that the Kentucky Supreme Court was the only body that could intervene.

President Robert Stivers told reporters in January the Senate was talking with attorneys and constitutional experts at what a potential trial could look like.

“Do we have a subcommittee hearing? Do we bring it to the full body? Do we allow cross examination?” Stivers said. “...We have a lot to think through.”

Stivers added the bar to remove an elected official from office isn’t clearly defined because “nobody’s really done it in 100 years.”

It takes a two-thirds vote of present Senators to convict, according to the state constitution.

The last time the state Senate voted to convict and remove an impeached official was in March 2023, when the body unanimously convicted disgraced former Eastern Kentucky prosecutor Ronnie Goldy. It was the first Senate impeachment trial in more than a century; Goldy did not appear to defend himself.

Goldy has since been convicted on 14 federal counts for his crimes in office and sentenced to more than three years in prison. Goldy was accused of doing favors for a woman facing criminal charges and in return soliciting sexually explicit videos from her.

(Politics editor Tessa Duvall contributed to this story.)

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