Kentucky

Hospital to pay feds $40.9M for unnecessary heart surgeries; more than 500 patient suits are ongoing

A Kentucky hospital has agreed to pay the federal government a record $40.9 million to settle civil claims over what the government describes as unnecessary heart procedures billed to Medicare and Medicaid. The settlement by King’s Daughters Medical Center announced Wednesday does not resolve more than 500 civil suits by…

May 28, 2014 10:30 PM CDT

At first jailed for contempt, longtime lawyer is now charged in claimed client theft

Jailed in December for contempt after he could not account for money which had been placed his escrow account in a divorce case, a longtime Kentucky lawyer is now facing a criminal case in Boone County. Sheriff’s deputies say John Arnett, 67, gambled away client funds and concealed his thefts…

Apr 14, 2014 8:29 PM CDT

Attorney who complained to state AGs about law firm is now herself facing scrutiny

A Kentucky lawyer who wrote the attorney general’s office in 40 states expressing concern about the operations of a Florida law firm for which she formerly worked is now herself facing a legal ethics case over similar allegations. Michele Stephens got a letter (PDF) last week from the disciplinary board…

Apr 9, 2014 10:45 PM CDT

‘I fought the Bar and the Bar won,’ says lawyer announcing his retirement from Ky. legal practice

A Kentucky attorney who has been a magnet for bar discipline says he has decided to retire from the practice of law in that state rather than fight to stay in good standing. “I am blessed that I don’t need to practice law in Kentucky and I have decided that…

Apr 8, 2014 4:15 PM CDT

Kentucky AG won’t defend same-sex marriage ruling; governor will hire outside lawyers

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway says he won’t appeal a federal judge’s decision requiring the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. His decision spurred Gov. Steven Beshear to announce that he will hire outside lawyers to appeal, report the New York Times and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Conway…

Mar 5, 2014 12:55 PM CST

Prosecutor is suspended from his job, allegedly for yelling at PD and forcing her from room

A prosecutor in Louisville, Ky., has been suspended from his job without pay for 30 days, allegedly because he yelled at a public defender and “compelled” her to leave a room. Robert Fleck, a DUI division chief with the Jefferson County Attorney’s office, was suspended until March 13 and ordered…

Feb 14, 2014 3:22 PM CST

Judges at odds with county attorney say he told assistant prosecutors to seek election to their jobs

Several judges at odds with a Kentucky prosecutor say he recruited assistant prosecutors in his office to seek election to their seats on the bench. There’s no dispute that Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell adopted a new policy allowing prosecutors to run for judicial office without giving up their current…

Jan 24, 2014 7:40 PM CST

Where are these disbarred lawyers now?

One disbarred Kentucky lawyer is ghostwriting briefs. Another publishes jury verdict newsletters. Others are simply retired. They are among several disbarred Kentucky lawyers tracked down by the Louisville Courier-Journal, which wrote about the findings here and here. Kentucky is one of only five states that impose the disbarment “death penalty,”…

Jan 22, 2014 12:15 PM CST

Woman is charged in courthouse theft of lawyer’s briefcase

A lawyer whose briefcase was stolen at a Louisville, Ky., courthouse on Friday morning got it back after authorities identified a suspect on surveillance camera footage. They contacted the suspect, Melissa Lynn Eaton, 32, through a friend who had accompanied her to court. She later returned the briefcase and its…

Jan 13, 2014 10:40 PM CST

Sex offender fights to take bar exam

A registered sex offender in Kentucky will ask the state supreme court to reconsider its decision barring him from taking the bar exam. Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith has a Jan. 13 deadline to ask for reconsideration of its decision to block his bar admission, the Associated Press reports. Hamilton-Smith pleaded guilty…

Jan 7, 2014 4:31 PM CST

Missing lawyer ‘pulled a Jimmy Buffett,’ friend says

A Kentucky lawyer who has been missing since June has been found at a Texas campground. Clyde Johnson, 47, was found in Port O’Connor, Texas, after some sleuthing by an attorney friend, Ned Pillersdorf, who was appointed to maintain Johnson’s office, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Johnson “was a fixture in…

Oct 25, 2013 12:10 PM CDT

Embattled disability lawyer featured on ‘60 Minutes’ says he served clients ‘with honor and dignity’

Am embattled Kentucky disability lawyer who was featured on 60 Minutes on Sunday and under investigation by a U.S. Senate committee has spoken publicly for the first time about the probe. “The truth will be forthcoming,” attorney Eric Conn told WKYT, urging observers not to rush to judgment. “I have…

Oct 10, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

Disability lawyer featured on ‘60 Minutes’ takes Fifth during Senate committee hearing

A high-earning Kentucky disability lawyer featured in a 60 Minutes television segment that aired Sunday subsequently took the Fifth during a U.S. Senate committee hearing. Eric Conn told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee that his lawyer had explained in an Oct. 7 letter why he wished to…

Oct 8, 2013 4:35 PM CDT

Spousal privilege doesn’t apply to woman testifying in same-sex partner’s murder trial, judge rules

Kentucky doesn’t allow same-sex marriages or civil unions, or recognize those that occur in other states. But even if it did, that wouldn’t mean that a woman who prosecutors say heard her same-sex partner admit to killing a man and saw her cleaning blood from his van a couple of…

Sep 23, 2013 11:15 PM CDT

Ex-Ky. bar prez is reprimanded for ‘brazen misrepresentations’ in office, conflict in priest case

A former Kentucky bar president has been publicly reprimanded for “brazen misrepresentations” in office and a conflict in a priest sex-abuse case. Barbara Bonar, whose one-year term as Kentucky bar president ended in July 2009, agreed to the sanction, imposed in a Kentucky Supreme Court opinion (PDF) issued last Thursday,…

Sep 3, 2013 10:59 AM CDT