Ex-prosecutor who’s on trial in KY gave different stories for why he was helping defendant
An ex-commonwealth’s attorney who’s on federal trial this week for allegedly seeking sexually explicit photos in exchange for legal favors for a defendant previously testified under oath that he never told anyone they were family. But that’s a major part of his defense attorney’s argument as to why Goldy helped the woman in court, and multiple other witnesses testified that he did tell them they were family.
Ronnie 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 the commonwealth’s attorney for Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties before investigations into his actions began last year and ultimately caused him to resign.
Goldy’s trial has largely focused on the explicit relationship he had with Misty Helton, a defendant who faced numerous court cases in Goldy’s jurisdiction between 2015 and 2020. Testimony and evidence presented in court spoke to a sexual relationship the two had, and how Helton said she felt pressured to provide Goldy with explicit photos and videos because he’d helped her resolve issues in court.
Some of Helton’s 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, has defended his client’s actions by saying Goldy helped Helton in court because he thought they may have been related. Throughout his alleged involvement with Helton’s cases, Goldy reportedly told other court officials that she was a family member, or she was working as a confidential informant, which was why she needed to be released from custody. Helton testified the two weren’t related and she was never a confidential informant.
But in a recording of a judicial review against Goldy presented as evidence, he testified under oath that he never told anyone they were related. According to Helton, the two did at one point think they were related, but later discovered they weren’t.
Goldy did admit in the recording that he sent her money, and did receive nude photos of Helton.
For several years, prosecutors, defense attorneys, police officers and judges were bystanders as Goldy pushed Helton’s cases aside, or made charges disappear, court testimony revealed Wednesday.
Goldy’s actions raise eyebrows of colleagues
June 2019 was the first time someone saw direct evidence Goldy was in contact with Helton. Former Owingsville police officer Billy Rudd was arresting Helton for trafficking charges when he saw her phone light up on the hood of the car.
Rudd testified in court that he saw a Facebook messenger alert pop up with Goldy’s picture, and his name with a message that read, “What’s up?”
Later, while Helton was awaiting booking at the local dispatch, Rudd testified she didn’t care about the charges she was facing because “she would get out of them because she is related to Goldy.”
She was charged with drug trafficking, drug paraphernalia, disorderly conduct, fleeing and evading and resisting arrest, according to court testimony. During Helton’s preliminary hearing — where a district court judge determines probable cause for criminal charges — Rudd testified in open court that he saw the message from Goldy, and mentioned Helton’s response.
According to court testimony, this now-public admission caused Goldy to recuse himself from the case. Special prosecutor Brandon Ison, the Commonwealth Attorney of the neighboring 37th Judicial Circuit, was called in to take the case. When prosecutors or judges recuse themselves from a case, it is often because of a conflict of interest. Goldy told Ison that Helton was his cousin.
When Ison was officially assigned the case, Goldy proceeded to text him about the case and suggested her drug trafficking charge should be amended to drug possession, according to text message evidence presented. This would’ve reduced Helton’s potential sentence: she was facing five to 10 years in prison but would instead get probation.
Ison admitted in court that he felt he didn’t have a case to make the trafficking charges stick, even without Goldy’s attempted influence, but said he “can’t say he didn’t think about what (Goldy) had said.”
Curtis’ line of questioning indicates he is making a case that some of these results would have happened with or without Goldy’s alleged involvement in talking with coworkers.
During that case, Helton was assigned a public defender named Charles Landon. Both Landon and Ison received texts from Goldy who was trying to get Helton’s car out of an impound lot following her arrest. Landon testified he received messages for weeks from Goldy about getting Helton’s property from impound.
Another of Helton’s public defenders, Adrian Jacob, testified during the trial that his client’s resolutions were “longshots.” In one instance, Helton’s court case was entirely stricken from the docket. Because he wanted the best outcome for his client, he didn’t question why the state prosecutor was advocating for Helton instead of prosecuting her.
“I told someone that Goldy seemed to be her attorney more than I was,” Jacob testified. “He would speak on her behalf to give her more chances.”
Circuit Judge David Barber, who presided over Helton’s case and dealt with the motions to secure her property, testified that Helton once said in court she “would just call Ronnie” to get her property back. This, he said, struck him as odd.
He allegedly confronted Goldy about this, and asked why she would make a statement in open court that he would offer help. Goldy replied that she was family, Barber said in court.
None were more confrontational to Goldy about his continued involvement than Ashton McKenzie, Goldy’s successor at the commonwealth attorney’s office. In addition to returning Helton’s impounded property, McKenzie was apprehensive about multiple instances of Helton not showing up for probation violation hearings, and her not having a warrant for her arrest issued.
It’s common practice for a defendant who’s not in custody to have a warrant issued for their arrest if they don’t show up for a court date.
“He didn’t ask, or request for (a bench warrant),” McKenzie said.
Goldy reported to her multiple times that Helton was working as a confidential informant, which Helton denied adamantly on the stand earlier this week. McKenzie had a suspicion this was not true, and even if she was, it was not appropriate for someone in Goldy’s position to speak with them about their involvement.
“He suggested they were family or that she was a confidential informant, which is still not appropriate at all for him to be speaking with her because even the appearance of impropriety jeopardizes the ability to fully prosecute,” she said.
McKenzie spoke with officers who work with confidential informants as to whether or not Helton was working as one. They all said she was not. Holliday also confirmed that after checking with every state and federal agency, Helton was not working as a confidential informant for them either.
When she confronted Goldy with this information, McKenzie said she was met with evasiveness, and Goldy said Helton had video of “controlled buys,” in which undercover officers or informants catch drug dealers.
McKenzie testified that he then took her to his office to show that they were friends on Facebook, and called her family. She said Goldy pulled up a picture of Helton in a “Halloween cat suit” and commented about how attractive she was.
She said she immediately pointed out how inappropriate this was to say, especially if she was family. She warned that Goldy’s actions could get him in trouble. But he insisted what he did — if anything — was only a misdemeanor.
Prosecutors were expected to finish presenting their case Thursday afternoon. Goldy was expected to testify Thursday.
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 1:34 PM.
