Supreme Court disqualifies Fayette Co. judge from discrimination case against UK
A Fayette County judge has been removed from a discrimination case against the University of Kentucky after the state’s highest court ruled she could be biased against the university.
The Kentucky Supreme Court disqualified Circuit Court Judge Julie Goodman because it said a comment she made at a hearing last year was “impossible to ignore.”
The disqualification is the latest unusual development in Goodman’s court, which has issued rulings that prompted outcry from local prosecutors who requested she recuse, and Attorney General Russell Coleman, who appealed rulings involving a murder dismissal and “lenient sentencing.”
Goodman refused to recuse herself in those cases, and the state Supreme Court ruled in her favor.
But in a ruling handed down Feb. 14 in the discrimination case, Supreme Court Deputy Justice Robert Conley ruled Goodman’s comment at an April 2024 hearing — that there was a “continuing danger on a daily basis that this court, unfortunately, feels like it has to be the sole protector” of a doctor suing the university for discrimination — could be considered impartial.
Dr. Kenneth Ain’s case against UK
Dr. Kenneth Ain, a board-certified endocrinologist, filed a complaint against the University of Kentucky and four employees in September 2023.
An employee at the university for nearly 33 years, Ain alleged UK for year engaged in unlawful employment practices, including discrimination based on disability and age, fraud, retaliation, breach of contract, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
He claimed UK failed to provide reasonable accommodations for his Autism Spectrum Disorder, subjected him to a hostile work environment, and wrongfully suspended him, which jeopardized patient care and his professional reputation.
He resigned in March 2024.
Ain went on to file two amended complaints in January and June of last year, accusing the university and a total of 10 employees of further harassment. The complaints also listed UK’s lawyers as defendants in his suit.
UK attorneys file two motions for Goodman to recuse
University of Kentucky’s general counsel filed their first motion for Goodman to recuse herself in August 2024, claiming she lacked impartiality and made “critical” opinions of the legal team, including acting in bad faith, violating the law, tampering with witnesses, and interfering in this litigation.
The first recusal request was three pages.
Another motion calling for Goodman’s recusal came just a month later by university counsel, and it was expanded to 19 pages.
This time, the attorneys said Goodman threatened to remove them as representatives of UK, which would have a “devastating impact on the University’s ability to defend itself, not to mention the significant time and expense to hire new counsel and get them up to speed on this tangled case,” court documents read.
They said this threat to be removed as counsel went against the code of judicial conduct and Goodman mischaracterized claims to support her theory. They asserted Goodman exchanged emails with Ain and his attorney regarding court matters — a claim which they said could be interpreted as biased.
Goodman refused to recuse herself. In her own order filed on October 2024, she said hostile comments were not enough to establish bias or prejudice. She asserted emails included the counsel for UK. Furthermore, she referenced her extensive docket which contains other cases involving UK where prejudice and bias were not in question.
James Morris, Ain’s attorney, said the timing of the recusal was notable because it came soon after Goodman determined UK had violated Kentucky’s Open Records Law when it failed to give Ain thousands of documents he requested in relation to his case.
Ain requested nearly 160,000 documents, Ain said, and the university withheld more than a third of them for 181 days, according to court documents.
Discussions about the records violations are ongoing as parties are debating the number of documents withheld and for how many days.
The university has spent more than $1 million litigating Ain’s lawsuit.
“This isn’t about a judge who made a comment out of frustration and taken entirely out of context after an hours long hearing — this was about a university interfering with critically ill patients and patient care by the same university who brags about patient care and high credentials,” Morris said. “This is about a university’s greed and putting its money in the hands of select doctors.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling
Conley said the Supreme Court ruling does not indicate Goodman is biased or partial, but only that her comment could be interpreted as such.
In this instance, Conley ruled, law for disqualification applies when a circumstance arises that, viewed from a reasonable person, a judge’s partiality could be reasonably questioned.
“Given Judge Goodman’s comments regarding her perceived role as the ‘sole protector’ of (Ain) in this matter going forward, such a circumstance has arisen here,” Conley’s opinion reads.
Judge Kimberly Bunnell, the chief regional circuit judge of Fayette County, will reassign the case to another judge.
“We are pleased with the Deputy Chief Justice’s decision,” said Jay Blanton, UK spokesperson.
Goodman said she respects Conley’s ruling.
“For the sake of the UK cancer patients treated by Dr. Ain who have been affected by this litigation, I hope that this dispute between UK and Dr. Ain is resolved soon,” she told the Herald-Leader. “I do regret that because of my recusal this very contentious and time-consuming case will now dominate the docket of one of my colleagues, as it did mine most of 2024.”
Ain’s lawyer said he thinks Goodman’s comment was taken out of context.
“It is deeply disappointing to me, not because Goodman would do anything different than another judge,” Morris said. “My client has to start all over again with a new judge — after 20 months of litigation and all of the proof of what we have demonstrated going on, and not fair to him at all.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM.
