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Governor appoints new justice to Supreme Court

A former circuit and district court judge has been appointed to the state's highest court.

Gov. Steve Beshear appointed Daniel J. Venters of Somerset to a Kentucky Supreme Court seat vacated by former Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert of Rockcastle County.

Venters will represent the 3rd Supreme Court District which includes 27 counties.  The Judicial Nominating Commission, led by Chief Justice Don Minton Jr., recommended Venters, Robert W. Dyche III of London and Eddie C. Lovelace of Albany for the open spot on Tuesday.

Venters is currently in private practice and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky. Venters will serve until the Nov. 4 general election. The deadline to file to run for the November election is Aug. 12. The candidate who wins the election in November will serve out the remainder of Lambert's term, which ends in 2010.

--- Beth Musgrave

Beshear considers 3 nominees for Supreme Court vacancy

FRANKFORT -- Gov. Steve Beshear has 60 days to select a new Kentucky Supreme Court justice from three names provided by a judicial nominating commission on Tuesday.

The new justice will fill the seat left vacant by former Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert of Rockcastle County, who retired last month.

The names of the three attorneys submitted to Beshear by the Judicial Nominating Commission, led by Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr., are Robert W. Dyche III of London, Eddie C. Lovelace of Albany and Daniel J. Venters of Somerset.

Dyche is a former Kentucky Court of Appeals judge. Lovelace has been a circuit judge since 1992, and Venters is a former circuit court and district court judge.

Jamie Ball, a spokeswoman for the state Administrative Office of the Courts, said Beshear's choice will serve until votes are certified in a Nov. 4 election.

The Nov. 4 election will determine who will serve out the remainder of Lambert's term, which runs through 2010, she said.

Ball added that whoever wants to run in the November election has until Aug. 12 to file with Secretary of State Trey Grayson's office.

The new justice will represent the 3rd Supreme Court District, made up of Adair, Bell, Casey, Clay, Clinton, Cumberland, Estill, Garrard, Green, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Lee, Leslie, Lincoln, Marion, McCreary, Metcalfe, Monroe, Nelson, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Russell, Taylor, Washington, Wayne and Whitley counties.

The Supreme Court is the state's highest court.

--Jack Brammer

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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Hyden attorney files to run for Supreme Court seat held by Lambert

FRANKFORT -- Hyden attorney Leonard Brashear has filed as a candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court to fill the unexpired term of former Chief Justice Joseph Lambert of Mt. Vernon who retired last month.

Brashear is the only candidate so far to file for the 3rd District seat that includes 27 counties in Eastern Kentucky but more are expected to get into the race to be decided in the Nov. 4 general election.

Lambert's term ends in 2010.

A judicial nomininating commission is tentatively scheduled to meet in early August to send the names of three nominees to Gov. Steve Beshear, who is to appoint one of them to replace Lambert on the state's highest court until the non-partisan November election.

Brashear, a graduate of Centre College and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, has been an attorney for more than 25 years. He is the managing partner of the law firm of Morgan, Madden, Brashear & Collins, PLLC.

A native of Leslie County, Brashear has served as a domestic relations commissioner and master commissioner. His law firm handles such issues as family law, real estate, criminal law, personal injury, workers' compensation and Social Security.

Brashear and his wife, Kimberly Cornett Brashear, have one daughter, Catherine. His campaign consultant is Dale Emmons.

--Jack Brammer

Officials call for immediate judicial reform

By Ryan Alessi
ralessi@herald-leader.com

The governor, key lawmakers and an army of officials from cash-strapped counties say wholesale reforms to the state's judicial and penal systems are needed now, before Kentucky is financially crippled.

County officials, some of whom have seen half their revenue sucked up by jail costs, used the first day of their summer conference in Lexington to make their case for drastic reforms.

In response, representatives from all three branches of government pitched various ideas they say might ease overcrowding at state prisons and county jails and reduce costs to the governments' bottom lines.

State Sen. Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said that in the short term the state should help counties by picking up the tab for felons as soon there is a jury conviction or a plea deal. Right now counties must cover the cost of housing those charged with felonies until they are sentenced.

“It's taking a bite out of the apple,” Stivers said after the meeting of the legislature's joint judiciary committee, which met in the Lexington Center, the site of the local officials' summer conference.

State Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott presented to that committee a proposal to provide uniform guidelines for setting bail for people charged with certain crimes — mostly misdemeanors.

He said providing those standards would allow for more non-violent offenders and those not charged with sexual or drug-related crimes to post bail so that the counties won't have to pay to keep them while waiting for trial.

“We have drifted over the last 30 years into a hodgepodge of bond standards,” he said.

A plan drafted over the last year would set bail standards for about 600 of the 724 misdemeanors on the books and 10 felonies. That plan can be approved by a majority vote of the seven-member Supreme Court.

And Gov. Steve Beshear, who spoke Thursday afternoon to the county judge-executive and magistrates groups, said the state will seek to lower costs of covering health care for prisoners when it renegotiates the contract with the insurance company, CorrectCare Integrated Health.

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Lambert's son linked to courthouses

By Linda B. Blackford
LBLACKFORD@HERALD-LEADER.COM

The son of outgoing Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert works for a company that has been the financial adviser on 70 percent of the new courthouses built between 1998 and 2006. Lambert became chief justice in 1998, and oversees a building program that has constructed 60 new courthouses.

Joseph P. Lambert Jr. works in the Louisville office of Ross, Sinclaire Associates, a full-service securities brokerage and investment banking firm. Reached there on Wednesday, he declined to comment.

According to a list of new justice centers built or approved since 1998, Ross, Sinclaire was the financial adviser on 43 of the 60 projects, helping market municipal bonds to finance them. The facilities arm of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which was overseen by Chief Justice Lambert, runs the construction program for new courthouses.

Joseph Lambert, Jr. made headlines earlier this month because his girlfriend, Joanna Cruz, was hired for a human resources job at the AOC that was not advertised. She and Lambert's son moved from Texas to Kentucky in January 2008.

All the contracts for new courthouses are decided by local Project Development Boards, a group of people from the community that is chaired by the county judge-executive. The board also has an AOC representative and makes many of the decisions involved with courthouse construction. The AOC sets all design and construction standards and oversees financing for the projects.

AOC Director Jason Nemes deferred all questions to Ross, Sinclaire.

Joseph Lambert Jr. started at the Louisville office of Ross, Sinclaire in February, said Murray Sinclaire, co-founder and CEO of the company.

"We get resumes all the time, we're always looking to expand, and he was one of many," Sinclaire said. "His dad, whom I don't know, had nothing to do with it."

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Courthouse site owned by justice

By Brandon Ortiz
BORTIZ@HERALD-LEADER.COM

PIKEVILLE -- Pike County plans to acquire downtown buildings owned by state Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott and members of his family for the site of a proposed courthouse.

Scott, a justice since 2005, said the land deal poses no conflict of interest since he doesn't even want to sell his property.

He's not happy that his office has been selected as the site for the $28.4 million project and would prefer to keep his building at 209 Second Street in Pikeville's downtown. Scott said he hopes his office won't be needed.

Nonetheless, he said he'll accept the county's offer of $360,000 rather than fight condemnation. Scott said he does not want to stand in the way of Pike County's getting a new courthouse.

"I hope the day I breathe my last breath I have a chance to be in this office," Scott said. "And then upon my death it's going to belong to my children. I don't want to sell it. I don't need to sell it."

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The Weddington Theater and the building at 209 Second Street in Pikeville are in a block scheduled for razing in order to build a new courthouse. Photo by Jerry Boggs | Appalachian News-Express

State court appointment questioned

By Brandon Ortiz
BORTIZ@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Uncertainty reigned over the state court system Friday.

Questions surfaced about the status of the court's administrative director only a day after Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert announced he will retire June 27.

And the Frankfort rumor mill ground at full speed with speculation about who will succeed Lambert as chief justice and whether he will play a role in the process.

Senate President David L. Williams, R-Burkesville, acknowledged Friday that the Senate did not confirm the appointment of Jason Nemes to director of the Administrative Office of the Courts during the recently ended session of the General Assembly. Nemes' appointment was not put to a vote.

"He did not have the support to be confirmed," Williams said in a statement released by his spokeswoman.

The consensus in the Senate was that Lambert was likely to retire soon and his successor should get to pick the AOC director, Williams said.

Nemes appears to be the first AOC director that the Senate refused to confirm.

Lambert responded this week with a one-page order reappointing Nemes as AOC director.

"After consultation with the Supreme Court the chief justice entered the attached order, which removed any previous questions as to my authority as the director of AOC," Nemes said in a statement.

But Williams pointed to a law that requires the AOC director to be appointed every four years "with the advice and consent of the Senate."

And Williams pointed to another law which states that the governor "or other appointing authority" must wait two years to reappoint someone rejected by the Senate. That law, however, is in a section of the Kentucky Revised Statutes that deals with the executive branch.

Retired Chief Justice John Palmore said he doesn't think that Lambert needs the Senate's approval to appoint Nemes. He noted that there is no such requirement in the Kentucky Constitution, which says the chief justice is the executive head of the courts and "shall appoint such administrative assistants as he deems necessary."

Palmore said the law requiring Senate approval is unconstitutional. He said the Senate is meddling with the court's internal affairs.

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Chief Justice Lambert resigning

In a surprise move, Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert announced Thursday that he will resign on June 27 to join the state's senior judge program.

"We have made great progress in the last decade to improve Kentucky courts and make them more responsive to the needs of Kentucky's families and children," Lambert said in a statement.

"As with any individual's efforts, however, there comes a time to move on," he said.

Lambert, 59, was first elected to the state's highest court in 1986 from the 27 southeastern Kentucky counties of the 3rd Supreme Court District. He has been Kentucky's chief justice since October 1998.

Although judicial posts are nonpartisan in Kentucky, Lambert is a Republican and sometimes has been discussed as a candidate for other elected offices, including governor.

Attorney General Jack Conway said a judicial nominating committee will submit three names to the governor as potential replacements for Lambert on the court. The governor must choose one of the three.

Members of the Supreme Court will choose their new chief.

Lambert's term doesn't expire until Dec. 31, 2010.

"At first blush, it appears there will need to be a special election to find two candidates for the November election to serve out the remainder of Lambert's term," Conway said.

- Jack Brammer

Girlfriend of chief justice's son gets court job

By Brandon Ortiz
BORTIZ@HERALD-LEADER.COM

A woman dating a son of Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert has been hired for a human resources job opening that was not advertised.

Joanna M. Cruz, 26, started at the new position of benefits administrator for the Court of Justice on March 1. The job pays $39,684 a year and is responsible for planning and directing benefits, such as unemployment insurance and worker's compensation, for the court system's 4,000 employees.

Cruz is dating Joseph P. Lambert, 23, whom she met while attending Princeton University. She graduated in June 2004 with a bachelor's degree in religion.

Joseph P. Lambert is the chief justice's oldest son.

"The position should have been posted and advertised," said Richard Beliles, chairman of Common Cause of Kentucky, a government watchdog group. "It does sort of get my attention."

Courts officials denied creating a position for Cruz. No one else applied for the job.

Jason Nemes, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, said the position was created about six months ago as part of a departmental reorganization. A human resources department was created in May 2007 to centralize processing of employment applications, centralize discipline handling, and expand benefits coordination and education.

The reorganization created four new positions. Nemes said the positions were filled over time to save money.

Nemes said he leapt at the chance to hire Cruz when he learned she and Joseph P. Lambert were moving to Kentucky from Texas.

"I bet you in 10 years she'll be running this shop," Nemes said. "She is just phenomenal."

Cruz did not return a phone message seeking comment.

The position is classified as non-tenured, which is similar to a non-merit position in the executive branch merit system. Judicial branch employees are not under the state merit system.

Nemes said the court system does not publicly post non-tenured job openings. The other jobs created by the departmental reorganization were tenured positions and thus advertised.

Cruz is the fifth-highest paid employee in the 17-person department. There are four non-tenured positions in the department.

She worked as an individual account manager at an Austin, Texas, insurance broker, Ball Peoples, from January 2005 to January 2008. She serviced individual policies for life insurance, health insurance, annuities, long-term care and mutual funds.

Nemes said she also helped manage employee benefits for companies.

Cruz will review processes and ensure compliance for unemployment and worker's comp. She also will educate employees about benefits.

Despite the lack of human resources experience, Nemes said, Cruz's intelligence, insurance experience and educational background qualify her for the job. Court officials said she has created a centralized process for handling worker's comp claims since she started.

"I believe the Court of Justice would have been the worse without her," he said. "If you met her, you would know how quality she is."