An Owensboro, Ky. judge charged with abusing her position to influence criminal cases involving her adult son has been removed from the bench.
The Judicial Conduct Commission, which deals with allegations of misconduct by Kentucky judges, voted 6-0 to remove Family Court judge Julie Hawes Gordon from Daviess County.
After a three-day hearing earlier this month, the panel found Gordon exhibited an “extensive and repeated pattern” of “exercising undue influence for her own benefit and the benefit of her son in his numerous criminal cases,” according to a 25-year page sequence. signed Friday by Committee Chair Carroll M. “Trip” Redford, III.
She used “extremely poor judgment” and engaged in “deeply unwise action — on and off the couch — that lasted for years,” the panel found.
The order to remove her will take effect in 10 days unless Gordon appeals.
Gordon was elected the first family judge on Daviess Circuit Court in 2016. She had been suspended with pay since December, following what the commission described as a “series of complaints” that continued to come to light this year.
“The allegations of misconduct against Judge Gordon brought to the Commission through the Complaints include serious claims of obstruction of justice, abuse and abuse of power, destruction of evidence, various improprieties as a bailiff, bias, improper exercise of influence, retaliation and a lack of frankness to the relevant tribunals,” the commission read.
The panel said in written correspondence with the committee that Gordon has “admitted much of her wrongdoing”. They described the decision to remove her as “tragic but necessary.”
According to the warrant, Gordon took “actions to destroy evidence and obstruct justice” when she “cleaned” the contents of her 24-year-old son Dalton Gordon’s social media accounts and cell phone in an attempt to protect him after an arrest.
She contacted the judge assigned to his case and the district attorney to try to influence bond decisions in his case, and she used her influence in prison to get special visits with him, bringing in food that other prisoners should not have had.
The panel said Gordon “created conflicts of interest because of her son’s legal representation in his criminal cases by an attorney who regularly appears before her in family court cases,” and she did not disclose those conflicts or reappear in cases involving them. .
“She bullied and threatened cabinet workers when they disapproved of her way of doing business with JDNA (juvenile dependency, neglect and abuse) or when they objected to her actions and statements, then retaliated against them when the cabinet and its workers defended and pushed back through normal exercise practices in her court,” the commission said.
Gordon sought to fine employees of the Cabinet of Health and Family Services for late filing of reports, and “she has used her position of power and ordered the placement of young people not in line with the Cabinet’s recommendations. It was only after the cabinet appealed some of these orders that they set them aside and thus prevented a reversal,” the order read.
She also had “arbitrary reasons” to remove lawyers or threaten to remove her guardian ad litem, the order said. A guardian ad litem is appointed by the court to represent the interests of a child in legal proceedings.
“There is no question that she has discredited the integrity and respect for the judiciary in Daviess County and that her improper actions violate the Canons” of the Code of Judicial Conduct, the order to remove her said. Undoubtedly, the integrity and respect for the judiciary throughout the Commonwealth has been and will be adversely affected by Judge Gordon’s misconduct, particularly in light of her retaliation against the Cabinet and its employees. As part of the misconduct, Judge Gordon abused her judicial position to satisfy her personal desires, a pernicious act that can rarely be explained away by a sitting judge.
In November, her lawyer told a Herald-Leader reporter that Gordon denied the “frivolous allegations” against her.
