Lexington man with history of harassment, other charges makes 3rd run for city council
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Matt Miniard, removed from Fayette conservation board, filed for District 9.
- Court records detail repeated threats, protection orders and dismissed charges.
- He challenges incumbent Whitney Elliott Baxter for the District 9 council seat.
A man who was removed from a Fayette County conservation board after he was accused of threatening a fellow elected official is running for a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council seat.
Matt Miniard was removed by the Fayette County Conservation District board in 2023 after he failed to sign his oath of office. He was first elected to the soil and water conservation district in 2018 and again in 2022.
The district runs agricultural-related programs in Fayette County, and its seven-member board is elected.
Miniard filed Dec. 30 to run for the 9th Council District seat, which includes neighborhoods around Reynolds Road, according to Fayette County Clerk’s office records. Miniard faces incumbent Whitney Elliott Baxter, who was first elected to the seat in 2020.
Prior to his ouster in 2023, he was accused of harassing a fellow conservation district board member. Court records show Miniard has been accused of aggressive behavior toward tenets and former girlfriends, as well. He spent time in jail after he failed to follow a protective order in 2013.
Miniard did not immediately respond to emails asking for comment.
Dust up at the soil and water conservation district
A protection order was entered against Miniard in May 2023 after he allegedly drove by the home of former Fayette County Conservation District supervisor Christopher Rowe.
Court documents state Miniard threatened to kill the other man. Rowe, who resigned from the board in 2022, frequently pushed back against Miniard’s often disruptive behavior, including verbally attacking conservation district staff.
The protection order was granted that July, and the district removed Miniard from the board.
The board used a state law requiring elected officials to take an oath of office within 30 days of their first day in office as a vehicle to remove him. Miniard had not signed his oath of office in that timeframe, the conservation board said.
Miniard also frequently sued the organization he was elected to serve.
He filed lawsuits against the water and soil conservation district three times between 2022 and 2023, court records show. Those included a suit challenging the board’s authority to remove him. All three were ultimately dismissed.
History of threatening behavior toward tenants
Miniard has a history of aggressive and threatening behavior.
In May 2023, the same month Rowe sought a protective order, a former tenant of Miniard’s also accused him of threatening behavior. According to an arrest citation, Miniard told his tenant “he would shoot him on two separate dates at two different locations.”
The tenant alleged Miniard had been trying to evict him by turning off his electricity and removing his belongings, according to court records.
Miniard was charged with stalking in that incident. That charge was dismissed in August 2023, though it’s not clear why.
The month prior, in July 2023, another tenant got an emergency temporary protective order against Miniard. According to her petition, Miniard kept calling and texting her, mainly when her husband was not at home, to tell her to vacate the property.
“He told me that if I did not move out of my house before my court date he would be there to put us out or do whatever it takes to get out before court,” the woman wrote in the petition for the order.
Like the other case, the protection order was dismissed in August of that year, according to court records.
In March 2024, a Fayette County District judge issued another temporary protection order against Miniard in a case involving yet another tenant. That tenant alleged Miniard “threatened to blow my head off several times” over a failure to vacate after the tenant failed to pay rent. That protection order was dismissed after eight days.
Miniard faced charges in another case involving a tenant in February 2025. He was charged with harassment, a misdemeaner, though the charges were dismissed in August.
In his motion to dismiss, Miniard argued he had placed several notices on the tenant’s door, which is allowed under state law regarding eviction of tenants. It was not harassment, he said. Miniard said he had called and texted the tenant to tell them to vacate the premises for nonpayment.
Assault & violations of protection orders
Miniard’s brushes with the law go back more than a decade, court document show.
He served jail time for domestic violence, assault and violations of a protective order in 2012 and 2013, according to court documents.
In 2012, his then-girlfriend, with whom he shares a child, received a protective order against him in July of that year. By Aug. 1, 2012, Miniard was arrested for violating that order and was arraigned the following day.
On Sept. 27, 2012, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail on a fourth-degree assault charge, terroristic threatening and violations of the protective order.
He reported to jail Oct. 8, but Miniard’s lawyer asked that he be released to care for his sick wife, court records show. In that filing, the attorney explained one violation of the protective order was because Miniard’s wife lived across the street from his girlfriend and daughter, and the order prohibited him from going within 500 feet of their residence.
The motion for early release was denied, but the court later amended the protective order to 30 feet. In 2013, Miniard served 90 days in jail for fourth-degree domestic violence charges in a case involving the girlfriend. In the meantime, he filed a complaint against her, claiming she knocked his glasses off his head and destroyed them.
Miniard told the Herald-Leader in 2018, when he ran unsuccessfully in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council at-large race, he entered Alford pleas to the various charges against him in 2012 and 2013. In an Alford plea, a defendant asserts innocence, but admits evidence could lead to a conviction on the charges.
Miniard also ran unsuccessfully in the council at-large primary in 2022.
