Woman says she felt pressure to trade sexual favors for legal help from ex-KY prosecutor
The woman at the center of federal criminal allegations against a former commonwealth’s attorney charged with exchanging legal favors for sexual favors testified in court Wednesday that they had sex with the prosecutor while facing court cases.
Misty Helton testified Tuesday that she sent explicit photos and videos to Ronnie Goldy, the former commonwealth’s attorney of Rowan, Bath, Menifee, and Montgomery counties, in return for help on several criminal cases in his jurisdiction.
“He helped in every one of ‘em,” Helton testified.
Goldy, 51, is charged with six counts of honest services wire fraud, six counts of using interstate communication to commit bribery and two counts of federal program bribery. He was indicted and taken into federal custody by the FBI in August. His trial began Tuesday and continued Wednesday with testimony from Helton and others.
Helton had pleaded guilty to multiple crimes within Goldy’s jurisdiction between 2015 and 2020, according to the indictment against Goldy, which accused him of helping her in her cases in return for the sexually explicit photos and videos. Some of her charges included drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit assault, fraud, receiving stolen property and identify theft, according to court testimony Tuesday.
Goldy’s attorney, Michael Curtis, said during opening statements Tuesday that Goldy helped Helton because they were thought to have been related. The claim was further explained in testimony Wednesday, as several witnesses involved in local court processes said Goldy had frequently told people he was related to Helton. Helton said the two thought they may be related in 2015, but later found out they weren’t.
‘We had crossed those boundaries’
Helton testified that after their initial meeting during a pretrial conference in 2015, she and Goldy did think they were family, which prompted their messaging on Facebook in a playful manner. But years later they discovered they were not related, and the conversation “changed drastically,” according to Helton.
Messages shown to the jury Wednesday indicated that Helton would ask Goldy for various favors, like giving her gas money, having her warrants dismissed or getting her out of jail. It came to be understood over time that in return for his help in court, Helton would send him the explicit messages, she testified.
Helton said she’d agree to send the videos but would come up with excuses not to do so. Goldy would send responses such as “you owe me,” “you can’t tease and not deliver” and “don’t leave me hanging.”
Helton said Goldy would fulfill his promises, and she felt she had to send videos. Helton also said in court Wednesday that she and Goldy did meet to have sex on one occasion.
“I wasn’t a defendant anymore,” she said. “We had crossed those boundaries.”
She said Goldy had the power to “do anything” in court, and boasted about it to her. She said she later realized that while he had the power to help her, he also had the power to hurt her.
During a break in Wednesday’s court proceedings, Curtis made the accusation that Helton may be under the influence during her testimony. Helton has a history of substance use and Curtis said he’s “seen a lot of drug addicts.” But the judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, said Curtis’ accusations were improper. He questioned the accusation because Curtis hadn’t even begun interviewing Helton yet.
Several legal officials testify against Goldy
Several judges, an officer and a public defender out of the 21st Judicial Circuit testified against their former colleague, and explained instances in which Goldy contacted them about Helton’s court cases.
On numerous occasions in a drug trafficking case that Helton faced, Goldy asserted himself into conversations and claimed Helton was “family,” even though he had recused himself from the case, according to testimony.
Goldy had attempted to get Helton’s car out of an impound lot after it had been towed in 2019 following a drug arrest, according to testimony. He messaged the public defender, Charles Landon, and the special prosecutor in the case, Brandon Ison, asking how to get Helton’s car and phone back.
Both Landon and Ison said in all their interactions with Goldy over the course of thousands of cases, he had never put so much effort into securing a defendant’s property as he did in that instance.
Goldy told both them that he was related to Helton, and told Ison that she was his cousin, according to court testimony.
“I am not sure where I heard it specifically because you hear it from 50 angles,” Landon said. “It was so well known around town (that they were family), so much so, once the news was public about the messages, someone called me and asked, ‘Aren’t they family?’”
On the occasions when Goldy didn’t tell other officials Helton was family, he allegedly said she was a confidential informant— a claim Helton adamantly denied. Helton and others who testified thought he did this as a justification to grant the favors she had requested.
In one specific instance mentioned Wednesday, she wanted to have a court appearance rescheduled.
Helton did assert that Goldy provided her detailed information about how confidential informants operated and even alerted her to a time when she was at risk of being set up in a controlled buy at a truck stop, which is when law enforcement officers set up a drug transaction to arrest someone selling drugs.
Goldy resigned from his position effective Feb. 28, 2023, after articles of impeachment against him were drafted in the House of Representatives. The state Senate voted unanimously in March to impeach Goldy, which is the first time this action was taken in 135 years.
The trial is expected to continue through the week.
This story was originally published January 31, 2024 at 4:01 PM.
