Kentucky official should lose job after affair, improperly touching workers, report recommends
A Kentucky circuit clerk should be removed from office after having a sexual relationship with a female employee and retaliating against her when it ended, a special commissioner has recommended.
Pulaski Circuit Clerk Joseph “JS” Flynn also engaged in harassment at the office, Jean Chenault Logue, a former circuit judge appointed to weigh evidence against Flynn, said in a recommendation released Monday.
That included pinching female court employees on the back below their bras and making statements such as “let Daddy feel your bacon,” Logue found.
Logue said that even if it was considered a joke, “such sophomoric, degrading, disrespectful behavior” was a violation of court policy.
“Employees should not be subjected to this type of physical or verbal humiliation or harassment,” Logue said in her findings.
The state Supreme Court will now decide whether to remove Flynn.
Flynn acknowledged he acted badly in one incident in which he cursed at a court employee, but denied other allegations against him, including sexually assaulting a female employee.
One of his attorneys, state Rep. Jason Nemes of Louisville, said he will ask the Supreme Court not to remove Flynn.
Flynn didn’t do anything that would justify kicking him out of the office voters elected him to, said Nemes, who represents Flynn with former Kentucky Chief Justice Joseph P. Lambert.
“We believe Mr. Flynn should stay in office,” Nemes said. “We think he did not do anything removable.”
Flynn’s attorneys have said some people lied in testimony about him.
Aaron J. Silletto and Marc Manley with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, designated as special advocate, presented the case against Flynn.
Only one other circuit clerk has been removed in Kentucky, and that was 30 years ago.
Flynn worked as a deputy in the circuit clerk’s office under his grandfather, George Flynn, who held the office nearly 30 years. JS Flynn was appointed to the job when he grandfather resigned, then won a full six-year term in 2018.
He was suspended with pay in late March 2022 after complaints arose about his conduct. Circuit clerks’ salaries differ based on county population; Flynn’s annual pay was $113,003.
Circuit clerks in Kentucky run an office which is responsible for staffing courtrooms, receiving lawsuits, keeping records and scheduling juries. They are elected in each county but are under the purview of the Supreme Court.
The case against Flynn arose after a woman who works for the district judges in Pulaski County, Ashley Haste, went to his office to retrieve some files.
Flynn was in a closed-door meeting. After Haste opened the door twice to ask for the files, Flynn yelled and cursed at her and raised his fist, causing her to fear he was going to hit her, she testified.
Haste and a female deputy clerk in Flynn’s office filed complaints the next day with the state Administrative Office of the Courts.
The other employee, who has since left the office, testified that while she and Flynn were riding back to the office one day from lunch in a Chevrolet SUV driven by another deputy clerk, Flynn tried to drag her from the front seat into the back seat with him.
Flynn pushed up her shirt to kiss her chest, exposed himself and tried to get her to touch him, the employee said.
She said she told Flynn to stop but that he didn’t end the assault until the woman driving the vehicle yelled at him.
The woman also testified that Flynn ran his hand up under her dress and touched her on the buttocks in a judge’s office in front of two witnesses, who confirmed seeing it happen.
The Herald-Leader does not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.
Other current and former employees in Flynn’s office testified that he engaged in angry outbursts toward employees; inappropriately touched employees; and made sexual comments in the workplace, sometimes about female customers.
Flynn said no one objected to him touching them. He acknowledged pinching employees, but said it was something people in the office did to each other as a prank.
He flatly denied trying to drag the employee into the back seat of the SUV or sexually assaulting her, and also denied putting his hand up her dress, saying she was lying.
Flynn said he had a brief sexual relationship with the woman, however.
Some witnesses said she pursued him, but she said Flynn pursued her and she eventually got tired of saying no and had sex with him, but broke off the relationship soon after.
Logue said in her report that Silletto and Manley established by clear and convincing evidence that Flynn “repeatedly engaged in acts of unlawful harassment” in violation of state policies.
The acts she cited included the alleged assault in the SUV; Flynn’s other “unwanted flirtatious actions” toward the same woman, including touching her in the office; and running his hand under her dress.
The findings indicated Logue gave more credence to the woman’s account than Flynn’s.
Flynn’s actions toward the woman were “frequent, severe, physically threatening and humiliating and created a hostile work environment” in violation of state policy, Logue concluded.
On the issue of having a sexual relationship with an employee, Logue said state policy does not bar office romantic relationships.
However, after the woman told Flynn it was over, he refused to speak with her, had other supervisors deal with her so he wouldn’t have to, and made derogatory comments about her. That conduct crossed the line, constituting harassment, Logue said.
In addition, the relationship was a conflict of interest because Flynn supervised the woman, and he did not report the conflict as required.
Flynn also failed to perform his duties with courtesy and respect as required, Logue said.
That finding was in relation to yelling at Haste.
Logue also cited Flynn’s angry outbursts on other occasions — what one worker called a “Flynn fit” — which caused distress among employees.
Logue said if the only violation at issue was Flynn’s angry outburst toward Haste, measures such as more education and/or anger management training might be sufficient.
But with all the violations taken together, the special advocate proved Flynn is unfit to perform the duties of the office and that good cause exists to remove him, Logue said.
This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 1:58 PM.
