Lying? Shredding documents? Judge accused of sex in office faces more ethics charges.
A Kentucky judge who allegedly had sex with an employee at work is facing additional charges of ethics violations.
The new ethics charges against Dawn M. Gentry include that she retaliated against an attorney who provided information during the investigation that led to the earlier charges.
Gentry was elected a family-court judge in Kenton County in November 2018.
The Judicial Conduct Commission, which investigates allegations of ethical wrongdoing by judges, first issued nine charges of ethics violations against her last November.
The charges included that she hired a man because she was in a sexual relationship with him, forcing out a female employee to make a job for him, and then took part in sexual activity with him and a female staffer at the office.
Gentry also allegedly let the man “spend work hours playing his guitar and singing in his office, disrupting other court employees,” the commission charged.
The other initial charges against Gentry included that she coerced lawyers to support her election; retaliated against an attorney for not giving her enough campaign money; pushed people on a court-appointed panel to give her campaign donations; used court employees for campaign work; and approved false time sheets for employees.
The commission alleged that Gentry had taken part in a pattern of violations that constituted misconduct in office.
Gentry denied those initial charges, including allegations that she was in a sexual relationship with the male employee cited in the charges.
The commission released three new charges against Gentry Monday.
The first is that she failed to be honest with the commission during a January hearing on whether she would be suspended while the case was pending, and afterward as well.
The commission said the issues on which she was not candid included her relationship with the male employee with whom she was allegedly involved, and her staff “destroying/shredding documents from your chambers.”
The second was that Gentry filed a complaint with the Kentucky Bar Association against a lawyer that Gentry knew, or had reason to know, had cooperated with the commission’s investigation.
Gentry filed the complaint shortly after responding to the commission’s initial charges against her, according to the new order.
In the third charge, the commission said Gentry presided over cases in which a personal friend of hers was one of the attorneys, but did not disclose that relationship to lawyers on the other side.
The commission charged that Gentry broke a number of rules, including one requiring judges to promote public confidence in the court system and avoid the appearance of impropriety, and another that requires judges to perform their duties impartially.
One of her attorneys, F. Todd Lewis, said Gentry disputes the new charges as well.
Gentry has been suspended with pay since January.
The commission has scheduled a hearing in August on the charges.
The commission has the authority to levy sanctions ranging from a private reprimand to removing a judge from office.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 1:53 PM.
