‘Abused his office.’ Ky. prosecutor may face suspension, allegedly sought nude photos for help

An allegation that a Kentucky prosecutor did favors for a woman who sent him nude photos has become an issue in a criminal case against a former circuit judge.

The prosecutor is Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronnie Goldy, who handles felony cases in the 21st Circuit of Bath, Montgomery, Menifee and Rowan counties.

Screen shots of Facebook messages provided to the Lexington Herald-Leader showed that Goldy sent the woman, Misty Helton, gas money at one point; searched whether she had outstanding arrest warrants; said he would try to move court dates for her; and advised her on getting back her car, which had been impounded after an arrest.

He requested photos or videos a number of times.

On June 11, 2018, for instance, Helton asked Goldy what she needed to do to get a warrant taken care of. “Besides the obvious lmao,” she said.

Goldy responded that he would talk to the judge the next day. Four days later, Goldy sent Helton a message that said “When do I get to see a video?”

“When am I not gonna have a warrant hahaha,” she responded.

“Lol. Good point. Incentives never hurt,” Goldy messaged back, saying he would try to speed up a resolution.

Louisville attorney Thomas E. Clay, who provided the screen shots to the Herald-Leader, said he has not seen anything to indicate Goldy was not the person involved in the messages.

The screen shots provided to the newspaper include two in which Helton sent Goldy nude or semi-nude photos. The first was on May 4, 2018, but the messages appear to indicate there were earlier instances.

“Wow. Nice,” Goldy texted after receiving photos in May 2018. “I do have most of these I think. But they are very nice. I’m sure you have some even better.”

Clay first provided the information to The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, which initially reported on them last week.

Clay questioned Goldy about the messages in court during a June 1 hearing.

“Your honor, what I’m trying to do here is I’m trying to establish that Mr. Goldy, an elected official, used his official power to extract sexual favors out of this defendant,” Clay said during the hearing. “I’ve got text messages which I think prove that.”

Clay also said in court that Goldy contacted other prosecutors to seek lenient treatment for Helton and her friends.

“I’ve got text messages indicating what he did as far as talking to the judge to get a bench warrant set aside or get her fines recalled or other things of that nature,” Clay said.

Goldy and an attorney who reportedly has represented him did not respond to requests for comment from the Herald-Leader.

But during the June 1 hearing, Goldy testified that he had never exchanged messages with Helton about “things she was going to do for him and things he was going to do for her,” and denied asking her for videos.

Goldy said in court that he may have communicated with Helton through Facebook and may or may not have deleted those messages.

“I delete Facebook all the time because I think it’s a waste of time,” Goldy said.

When Clay asked Goldy if he had sent Helton a message on a particular date asking when he could see a video, Goldy said. “You’re talking four years ago. I don’t recall that, no.”

Clay scoffed at Goldy’s testimony.

“It’s worse than not credible. It’s a crime,” Clay said in an interview.

Clay raised the potential that Goldy could face a state perjury charge or federal charge. He said he gave the Facebook messages to the FBI and understands the agency is investigating.

Helton has a lengthy arrest record that includes charges of theft, passing cold checks, drug trafficking and possession, possession of forged checks and identity theft. Attempts to reach her were not successful.

The 230 pages of screen shots are an issue in the criminal case against former Circuit Judge Beth Maze, who was a judge in the 21st Circuit same for nearly 20 years.

Questions raised about prosecutor’s credibility

Clay represents Maze. He has filed the screen shots in the court record, according to a motion, and argued that they raise questions about Goldy’s credibility as a potential witness against Maze.

Maze retired in October 2019 as the state Judicial Conduct Commission considered ethics charges against her.

The charges against Maze included that after after her ex-husband, Donald “Champ” Maze, was arrested on drug charges in September 2017, she signed two orders for him to receive drug tests at two hospitals, using the names of other court officials and an attorney without their permission or knowledge.

Goldy was one of those officials.

Beth Maze left office before the commission ruled on the case. The panel later reprimanded her, but said it would have removed her if she’d still been in office.

A grand jury also indicted Maze on two charges of forgery and one charge of tampering with public records, all Class D felonies punishable by one to five years in prison.

Clay has argued that some other court officials in 21st Circuit wanted to oust Maze and used the orders involving her ex-husband to try to accomplish that.

Maze has denied doing anything wrong.

She said she signed the orders for her ex-husband to be drug tested only as a way to preserve evidence.

As to signing using the names of others, Maze said she did that mistakenly during a chaotic evening, believing the form was a different one.

Clay said in a court motion that Maze made a clerical error in not recognizing the two forms were different. It was a common mistake that other male judges in the circuit have also made, “but unlike Judge Maze, have not been prosecuted,” Clay wrote.

The state Supreme Court said in a ruling that Maze’s contention she was confused by an outdated form was “unpersuasive,” and the prosecutor in her criminal case said the fact that other judges may have signed the same form without facing prosecution was not relevant to whether she committed forgery.

It is not a valid defense for someone to say “that they cannot be prosecuted for violating the law because another individual violated the same law and was not charged,” the prosecutor said.

Clay said the messages came to him by way of a boyfriend of Helton’s who took screen shots of messages on her phone and turned them over.

The boyfriend said Goldy “granted favors in court” for Helton, according to Dan Jackman, a retired Louisville police officer who analyzed the messages for Clay.

‘Don’t leave me hanging.’ Excerpts from messages.

In the first message in the trove, dated April 27, 2018, Helton asked if Goldy had changed a court date, and he said he did.

On May 3, 2018, after a message indicating Goldy had sent Helton gas money, he messaged, “Now your turn. Don’t leave me hanging,” and then later “You’re killing me.”

Helton responded that she had been pulled over by police and could be going to jail.

“Ok. I’ll take care of it,” Goldy responded.

On June 27, 2018, Goldy messaged Helton “You owe me big time.”

“Why? Lol,” she responded.

“Judge is about to withdraw some warrants,” he said.

“YESSSS!!!” Helton messaged back.

On Aug. 21, 2018, the two discussed going to the gym, and then Goldy told Helton to not get off the topic.

“You still owe me videos,” he said. “Can’t tease and then not deliver.”

A panel of the Kentucky Bar Association has asked the state Supreme Court to temporarily suspend Goldy from practicing law. The request cited the initial Courier-Journal story and included six of the screen shots of messages between Goldy and Helton.

The messages show Goldy’s expectation that he would receive nude photos or videos in exchange for helping Helton, the bar panel said.

“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 into disrepute,” said the request, signed by chief bar counsel Jane H. Herrick.

Goldy can contest the request. The deadline for him to file a response has not passed.

How state handles allegations against prosecutors

Some prosecutors said the case points up the need for another way to deal with allegations of wrongdoing against prosecutors.

The state has a panel, the Judicial Conduct Commission, that investigates allegations of wrongdoing against judges and can impose discipline ranging from a reprimand to removal from office.

There is not a comparable system for prosecutors, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who serves in the 29th Circuit of Casey and Adair counties and is president of the Kentucky Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Association.

If the allegations against Goldy are true, his conduct was clearly improper, Wright said.

“It’s obviously unethical if you’re getting any sort of improper benefit in return for doing something in your official capacity,” Wright said.

Wright said he is interested in setting up a disciplinary process for prosecutors through the Prosecutors Advisory Council (PAC), which is made up of the attorney general, county attorneys, commonwealth’s attorneys and citizen members.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron, who is on the council, also said he thinks the panel should be given authority to hold prosecutors accountable if needed.

He said he expects a group of prosecutors to push for that.

Wright and Cohron said such a system would have to be set up carefully in order to weed out spurious complaints against prosecutors — who obviously can make enemies with their work — and guarantee protection of due process for prosecutors facing allegations of wrongdoing, but that done correctly, it could benefit the profession and the public.

“I think we need to be able to police our own,” Cohron said. “PAC needs to have the ability to intervene and act quickly.”