Senior prosecutor is fired one day after courtroom outburst
A senior prosecutor in Jefferson County, Kentucky, was fired Thursday following a Wednesday courtroom outburst during a contentious hearing.
The Louisville Courier-Journal provided a copy of the courtroom video of the incident. In it, prosecutor Robert Fleck called a public defender “wet behind the ears” and said, “For the record judge, I think this is bullshit,” after she told him he would have to attend an afternoon court hearing even when he said he had a conflict.
After the hearing resumed that afternoon, public defender Adam Braunbeck asked District Judge Sandra McLaughlin to hold Fleck in contempt, saying, “I may have only been doing this for three years, but I know that nobody is allowed to come into the court and behave the way Mr. Fleck did this morning.”
During that Wednesday afternoon contempt hearing, Fleck apologized. He told the judge he’d reacted poorly to Braunbeck’s “incessant” needling, as well as his own concern that he might be keeping his 83-year-old mother, who doesn’t have a cellphone, waiting at a restaurant for a scheduled lunch date.
The video shows both Braunbeck and Fleck talking over each other repeatedly during the hearing. However, it is Fleck who speaks in a loud, angry tone and is seen on the video at times speaking directly to his opposing counsel. The video doesn’t show whether the public defender spoke directly to Fleck.
The judge hasn’t yet decided whether to hold Robert Fleck in contempt over the incident, reports the Courier-Journal.
Suspended for one month without pay in February following a conference-room encounter in which a different public defender complained of mistreatment, Fleck was told he would be fired if another such incident occurred, reported the Courier-Journal in an earlier article.
In a Thursday letter (PDF), county attorney Mike O’Connell cited a February “zero tolerance suspension agreement” and said Fleck’s employment was over, effective immediately.
After the February incident, O’Connell’s first assistant had described Fleck as talented and committed to his job, telling the Courier-Journal that Fleck served as DUI division chief and has done a lot of good work for the county attorney’s office.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Prosecutor is suspended from his job, allegedly for yelling at PD and forcing her from room”
Updated at 3:33 p.m. after the video was removed from the WDRB site.
