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| Goldy reportedly asking for special prosecutor to investigate latest charges involving Helton |
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8/12/2022
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate
writer
The Louisville Courier published a story Tuesday quoting from a letter reportedly sent to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office from Commonwealth Attorney Ronnie Goldy asking for a special prosecutor to investigate the latest charges against Misty Helton.
The Courier Journal alleged in a story it published July 12 that Goldy traded favors in court for Helton in exchange for nude images of her.
The paper cites a reported Aug. 4 letter in which Goldy reportedly asked the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutors to appoint a prosecutor to take over a case against Helton. Goldy reportedly does not offer a reason for the request, the Courier Journal claims.
The Courier Journal claims it obtained a copy of the letter through the Kentucky Open Records Act. The Advocate filed a request with the AG’s office Wednesday morning requesting the same letter, but was told the letter was not immediately available and a response would take some time.
Helton, 28, of Salt Lick, was arrested July 15 after allegedly fleeing from authorities in a vehicle and was found in possession of drugs, according to a uniform citation filed by the Bath County Sheriff’s Office, the Advocate previously reported. Helton is charged with fleeing or evading police, tampering with physical evidence, trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine and heroin), reckless driving, speeding, no registration plates and failure to maintain insurance.
The Kentucky Inquiry Commission has filed a petition with the Kentucky Supreme Court seeking to temporarily suspend Goldy, commonwealth attorney for Montgomery, Bath, Menifee and Rowan counties, from practicing law.
The Inquiry Commission is an independent body appointed by the Supreme Court to receive and process complaints from any source which allege professional misconduct by lawyers.
The petition, filed July 14, includes a rebuke of the prosecutor following allegations.
“He has abused his office (an office which he could not have held if he were not an attorney), abused the trust of the public and brought the legal system of Kentucky in serious disrepute,” KBA (Kentucky Bar Association) Chief Bar Counsel Jane H. Herrick claims in the petition. “His conduct shows a clear lack of fitness to practice law in Kentucky, much less represent the Commonwealth in serious criminal matters. Therefore, even if respondent resigns his office in light of the allegations, he should still be temporarily suspended.”
The petition notes that July 12, the Louisville Courier Journal published an article about Goldy headlined, “Kentucky prosecutor promised to help defendant if she send him nude messages show.”
The petition claims that prior to publication of the article, the Inquiry Commission and Office of Bar Counsel were unaware of the allegations against Goldy.
According to the article, the petition states, the allegations were revealed or addressed during a June 1 court hearing in Bath Circuit Court in a forgery case against former Circuit Judge Beth Maze.
The petition claims that no one reported the allegations to the KBA prior to publication of the article as required.
Allegations against Goldy first reported in the Louisville Courier Journal involve 230 pages of Facebook messages reportedly sent from Goldy to Helton from 2018-2020.
In the messages, Goldy allegedly agreed to talk to judges about continuing criminal cases against her in exchange for nude photos and videos of herself.
Many of the allegations against Goldy are also outlined in a five-page report compiled by a former Louisville Metro Dept. officer Dan Jackman, a private investigator who now operates a company called Mobile Forensic Solutions.
Jackman was hired to examine a phone reportedly belonging to Helton’s boyfriend, who allegedly suspected that Helton was having an outside relationship, Louisville attorney Thomas Clay said.
Clay claims he got access to the Facebook messages after Helton’s boyfriend reportedly contacted Maze’s ex-husband and gave him screen shots of some of the messages.
Clay is representing Beth Maze, who served 18 years on the bench in the same circuit where Goldy is now the prosecutor.
Maze was publicly reprimanded by the Judicial Conduct Commission in 2017 for allegedly improperly intervening when her ex-husband, Donald “Champ” Maze, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and other alleged crimes.
Maze is currently facing charges in Bath County Circuit Court on two counts of forgery and one count of tampering with official records for allegedly forging the names of Goldy and other public officials on documents that approved two requests for testing of her former husband’s blood at local hospitals following his arrest.
Goldy is slated to be a witness against Maze in the forgery case.
At a pretrial conference Monday, Special Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass with the AG’s office asked to recuse from the Maze case. Special Judge Phillip Patton gave the Attorney General’s Office 10 days to name a replacement.
“It is common practice for prosecutors to recuse themselves from cases when they have a conflict. As with every case where we appoint a special prosecutor, our office of Special Prosecutions will search for a prosecutor who is both willing and able to take on this criminal case,” Krista Buckel, acting communications director for the AG’s Office, told the Advocate.
The next pretrial conference in the Maze case is scheduled for Sept. 20.
Clay claims he has asked for further investigation of Goldy’s alleged conduct from the FBI, but the agency has not responded to requests from the Advocate for comment.
Goldy has reportedly hired Louisville criminal attorney Timothy Denison to represent him.
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