KY Senate suspends impeachment effort against Lexington judge

The Kentucky Senate will not move forward with impeachment proceedings against a Lexington judge — at least not yet.

Senate President Robert Stivers said Tuesday the body has “suspended” upcoming impeachment hearings, which were slated to begin Thursday against Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.

Goodman was impeached by the Kentucky House on March 20 in a 73-14 vote, largely along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor. The case was then headed to the Senate for a trial, with potential conviction and removal from office, an unprecedented move in Kentucky’s modern history. But the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled April 6 the impeachment effort was invalid and should not proceed.

Senate leaders were previously non-committal about whether they would abide by the order from the state’s highest court.

But late Tuesday evening, the body introduced Senate Resolution 297, which suspended Goodman’s articles of impeachment.

Stivers told reporters the Senate is delaying the proceedings to see if the Judicial Conduct Commission will take steps to sanction Goodman.

Goodman’s lawyers had argued — and the Supreme Court agreed — that the commission was the proper forum to consider judicial sanctions in cases like Goodman’s.

“We have statistics that (the commission) very rarely act(s) on complaints” Stivers said Tuesday. “So, we’re going to see what they do, and then if they don’t do anything, we can come back and take action.”

Stivers said a trial remained an option.

“There will have to be a certain set of conditions that take place before we could have a trial, but it can take place,” Stivers said.

Goodman’s impeachment petition was filed in January by former Kentucky lawmaker Killian Timoney, a Republican seeking to regain his Lexington-area seat. Timoney claimed Goodman had abused her office and ignored the law, citing as evidence six particular cases in her courtroom.

The Kentucky Supreme Court, in invalidating the petition, ruled that Goodman’s conduct was not impeachable, the General Assembly was not the proper venue for judicial sanctions and the impeachment petition was improper because it was missing a notary’s signature

The previous schedule included three days for prosecutors from the House to present their case to a Senate committee, followed by three days of Goodman’s defense, before the case would advance to the full Senate beginning April 24.

A Senate impeachment committee will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 9:03 PM.

Taylor Six

Lexington Herald-Leader

Taylor Six is the criminal justice reporter at the Herald-Leader. She was born and raised in Lexington attending Lafayette High School. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 with a degree in journalism. She previously worked as the government reporter for the Richmond Register.