Witnesses say Kentucky court official improperly touched female employees at work
The circuit court clerk in Pulaski County faces the possibility of being removed from his position after witnesses said he yelled and cursed at employees, made sexual comments and jokes in the office and touched female employees in inappropriate ways.
During a hearing about his conduct Wednesday, one former female employee said the clerk, Joseph “JS” Flynn, pulled her into the backseat of a Chevrolet Tahoe, pushed up her shirt and kissed her chest, and exposed himself and tried to force her to touch him. The former employee, who was a deputy clerk, made additional accusations about inappropriate touching.
The Herald-Leader does not identify victims of alleged sexual assault.
In her testimony about Flynn touching female employees, the former deputy clerk said Flynn told employees to call him “Daddy.”
Flynn would say “‘You know you like Daddy. You know you want Daddy,’“ the deputy clerk said.
Flynn’s attorneys tried to discredit the testimony against him, suggesting witnesses were motivated by animus or political considerations.
“It’s a cabal and a pack of lies,” Jason Nemes, who represents Flynn, said before the hearing began.
Nemes, a Republican state legislator from Louisville, represents Flynn with Joseph E. Lambert, former chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Aaron Silletto and Marc Manley with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office are presenting the case against Flynn, which could result in him being removed from office. Flynn isn’t facing criminal charges in the hearing.
Former Madison Circuit Judge Jean Chenault Logue is the hearing officer on the case.
Flynn was appointed circuit clerk in 2016 to fill out the unexpired term of his grandfather, George Flynn, who had served as clerk nearly 30 years before resigning. Joseph Flynn won a full six-year term in 2018, but he was suspended with pay in late March 2022 after complaints arose about his conduct.
Circuit clerks in Kentucky run an office which is responsible for staffing courtrooms, receiving lawsuits, keeping records and scheduling juries. Clerks are elected but are under the purview of the state Supreme Court.
The salary for clerks varies based on the population of the county. The salary in Pulaski County in Fiscal Year 2023 is $113,003.
At the hearing Wednesday, the former deputy clerk and others said Flynn engaged in angry outbursts that created a tense situation in the office.
The environment was “stressful, like you’re walking on eggshells,” said Lana Raynes, a deputy clerk.
‘Very uncomfortable’
Witnesses testified about acts by Flynn such as touching female employees on the neck, playing with their hair, rubbing their shoulders or pinching them on the back.
“You could tell it was very uncomfortable for her,” Raynes said of an incident in which she said Flynn caressed a woman’s back at the office.
Ashley Haste, an administrative support specialist in the district judge’s office at the Pulaski County Judicial Center, said she saw Flynn grab a woman’s rear and say “’Come here, let Daddy feel your bacon.’“
The former deputy clerk who alleged that Flynn exposed himself to her also testified that Flynn pursued her when she worked in his office, hanging around her desk and touching her on the back or shoulders.
She asked him to stop but he didn’t, she said.
In one case, Flynn ran his hand up under her dress and touched her on the buttocks, she said.
The incident happened in a judge’s office in the judicial center in front of witnesses, she said.
“I was in shock that he done it in front of other people,” she said.
Haste and Junior Fortenberry, a court security officer, testified they saw Flynn put his hand up the deputy clerk’s dress.
Haste said she told Flynn there were cameras in the office, and he said, “‘Good, maybe I finally gave’m something worth watching.’“
Haste said there were no cameras, but she told Flynn that to try to ward off other problems.
Flynn’s attorneys said in cross-examining witnesses that Haste and Fortenberry had both had run-ins with Flynn, suggesting a motive to try to get even with him, though both said that wasn’t the case.
Nemes said the incident simply didn’t happen.
Former employee accuses clerk of sexual assault
The former deputy clerk gave more detail about what happened when Flynn allegedly sexually assaulted her.
She said she had been to lunch with Flynn and another deputy clerk, Hannah Garner, and the three were headed back to work. Garner was driving and the former deputy clerk was in the front passenger seat of a Chevy SUV, with Flynn in the back seat.
She said Flynn grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the back seat, pushing up her shirt to kiss her chest and exposing himself.
The top part of her body was in the back seat and her legs were on the console between the front seats, she said.
She said she told Flynn to stop and tried to push him off, but he tried to force her to touch him and didn’t quit until Garner shouted at him to stop.
Garner said she couldn’t see what happened because she was looking at the road, but confirmed she heard the former deputy clerk tell Flynn two times to stop and then yelled at him herself to stop.
The former deputy clerk acknowledged she had sex one time with Flynn, saying she got tired of having to say no.
She said she went to his house before Christmas in 2021 to wrap presents, and Flynn tried to take off her shirt.
She said she resisted at first, but then gave in and had sex with him even though she didn’t want to.
After that, she said, she told Flynn he had to stop pursuing her.
Flynn then made derogatory remarks about her at work and falsely told people she had a sexually transmitted disease, she said.
The alleged victim, a divorced mother of two young children, said she didn’t report the attack in the SUV or other alleged wrongdoing by Flynn soon after the incidents out of concern over losing her job.
Additional complaints of yelling, cursing
In cross-examining the alleged victim, Nemes said she pursued a relationship with her boss, telling co-workers she would be Mrs. Flynn after his divorce and that she would run the office.
Nemes said the former deputy clerk was part of a group that “concocted this scheme” against Flynn, and that she fabricated the story about him pulling her into the back seat of the vehicle to bolster the case against him.
She denied pursuing Flynn, and said of the incident in the SUV that Flynn “pulled me with all his might” into the back seat.
She told other people in the judicial center about the alleged incident at the time.
In additional testimony Thursday, a supervisor in the circuit clerk’s office said the former deputy clerk is manipulative and has a tendency to be untruthful.
More witnesses also testified that Flynn yelled at employees and made sexual comments in the office.
The former deputy clerk, Haste and Fortenberry filed complaints against Flynn after an incident that happened March 22, 2022, which ultimately led to this week’s hearing.
Haste said she went to Flynn’s office to get some court files but one was in a room where he was meeting with some employees behind a closed door.
Haste and other witnesses said Flynn got mad about her trying to get the file, yelling and cursing.
“He told her this was not her f-----g office,” the former deputy clerk said.
Haste said Flynn had his fist clenched as he stood close and yelled at her, and she feared he might hit her.
Haste told District Judge Jeffery Scott Lawless what had happened and he went downstairs and confronted Flynn.
The “judge was saying he (Flynn) was a disgrace to the office” and should resign, Raynes said.
Court officials placed Flynn on administrative leave soon after.
This story was originally published May 11, 2023 at 9:11 AM.
