Fired court employee's appeal loses
By Brandon Ortiz
bortiz@herald-leader.com
The state court system rejected Wednesday the internal appeal of a fired employee who claimed that the oldest son of Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott was given preferential treatment when promoted in January.
The appeal was filed by fired Administrative Office of the Courts employee Ruth Combs, a pre-trial officer whose employment record includes three disciplinary probations since 1995. She questioned the promotion of the Pikeville justice's oldest son, Andrew H. Scott, 32, to her former job.
The case, which the AOC refused to make public, marked the second time that Andrew Scott was accused of being improperly promoted.
According to Wednesday's decision, written by retired Justice James E. Keller, Combs' appeal had accused Justice Scott of conspiring with AOC Director Jason Nemes to give the younger Scott a supervisor job in Perry County.
A three-person AOC appeals board said Combs' claim of favoritism had ”no merit whatsoever,“ but recommended reinstatement because the evidence used to justify her firing was presented after her termination.
Keller overturned the board's recommendation that Combs get her job back. Combs was fired in January.
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