Man running for Lexington council defends history of harassment, other charges
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- Candidate Matt Miniard defends actions amid repeated harassment and eviction claims.
- Court records show multiple protective orders, charges and several dismissed cases.
- Miniard cites fiscal oversight and tax relief agenda for council run.
A man with a history of harassment and other charges who is running for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council said he has been wrongly accused of bad behavior after trying to root out corruption and evicting bad tenants.
Matt Miniard, who has filed to run in the 9th District council seat this year, told the Herald-Leader he was ousted from the Fayette County Conservation District, to which he was elected in 2018 and again in 2022, because he felt the district was spending too much money.
“FCCD abuse and waste of tax payer funds is rampant,” Miniard wrote in a Jan. 11 email.
He said the district receives about $500,000 in taxpayer dollars, but its agricultural-related programming could be overseen with just $50,000. (The actual amount from local property taxes the district currently receives is about $375,000. During Miniard’s time on the board it was closer to $175,000, tax records show. )
Miniard was removed from the Fayette Conservation District board in 2023 after he failed to sign his oath of office. Christopher Rowe, a former board member, sought a protection order against Miniard after Miniard drove by his home and threatened to kill him, according to court documents.
That protection order was signed in May 2023, and Miniard is not supposed to contact Rowe for three years, according to Rowe.
According to Miniard, he was the victim.
“A fellow board member attacked me via zoom board meeting during CVOD [sic] -19 pandemic for years,” Miniard wrote. “This board member displayed the behavior of child with name calling, taunting me, threatening physical harm to me for years via zoom.”
In response, Rowe said he had no comment on Miniard’s allegations.
Miniard filed lawsuits against the 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.
Heather Silvanik, executive director of the Fayette County Conservation District, said voters should look closely at Miniard’s record.
“After years of abuse and professional harm caused by his documented misuse of litigation, his candidacy indicts a civic culture that continues to excuse misconduct in those who seek power,” she said.
The Herald-Leader reached out to Miniard ahead of an article about Miniard’s history of legal problems and candidacy Jan. 7. Miniard responded to the newspaper’s request for comment Jan. 11.
Protection orders filed by tenants, girlfriend
Miniard’s legal problems and history of harassment date back more than a decade, court records show. Multiple tenants have sought protection orders against him.
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, and the charges 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 telling her to vacate the property.
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 an additional case involving a tenant in February 2025. He was charged with harassment, a misdemeanor, though the charges were dismissed in August.
The council candidate said his tenants were using the legal system to avoid eviction.
“In the past, several charges were dismiss [sic] against me was result of former tenants under the threat of eviction tried to work the court system so to prevent forceable detainer becoming homeless?,” Miniard wrote. “These events also reflects that as ‘Christian’ I am no longer willing to turn the other cheek like I have so many times in the past pleading to charges not really guilty of.”
Miniard spent time in jail in 2012 and 2013 after failing to follow a protection order sought by a former girlfriend, court records show.
In 2012, his then-girlfriend 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.
He was sentenced that September to 90 days in jail on a fourth-degree assault charge, terroristic threatening and violations of the protective order. In a filing, his attorney explained one violation of the protective order was because Miniard’s wife lived across the street from his girlfriend, and the order prohibited him from going within 500 feet of their residence. 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 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. He also ran unsuccessfully for council in 2022.
Running on lower taxes
Miniard, a real estate appraiser, said he is running for the District 9 seat because he feels the merged government’s taxes are too high.
He faces incumbent Whitney Elliott Baxter, who has held the seat since 2020. The district includes neighborhoods near Shillito Park in the Reynolds Road area.
“I will be advocate to reduce property taxes and LexServ [sic] fees, rates and wasteful LFUCG spending,” Miniard wrote.
Lexserv is the city’s billing platform for landfill, water quality and sanitary sewer fees.
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 8:35 AM.
