Who is Julie Muth Goodman, the Lexington judge facing impeachment?

Before she faced a controversial impeachment at the hands of Kentucky lawmakers, Fayette Circuit Court Judge Julie Muth Goodman spent more than four decades in various judicial branch positions.

Goodman’s jobs included prosecutor, defense attorney and judgeships in various courts. In an interview with the Herald-Leader, she described her experience as having worked on “both sides” of the justice system.

But now, Goodman is facing potential removal from office, as an impeachment petition against her moves through the General Assembly.

Here’s what we know about Goodman.

Goodman’s family background

Goodman was born and raised on her family’s farm in Fayette County. She attended Christ the King in Lexington, before attending Tates Creek High School. She graduated from Transylvania University before obtaining a law degree from the University of Kentucky.

She’s been married to Phillip Goodman for 47 years. They have one child together, Clay.

The only time Goodman lived outside of Kentucky was for a three-year-period when her husband had a job in New York at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. They returned to Kentucky when the couple started their family.

She has practiced law for 46 years.

“My education has given me the confidence and the knowledge, to practice law in 24 states,” Goodman said in an interview with the Herald-Leader.

Goodman’s work history

Goodman first worked as a prosecutor of securities fraud crimes in the 1980s. She was recruited by former Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson, who was her mentor her entire career.

She went on to serve in the attorney general’s special prosecutions unit before returning to the Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Office in the 1990s.

“I worked alongside Ray — in fact he taught me how to try a criminal case,” Goodman said. “I tried capital murder cases. I tried horrific rape cases of children. I did that throughout the commonwealth and tried in 20 counties, prosecuting cases.”

From the mid-1980s through 2008, Judge Goodman was a partner in Lexington and regional Kentucky law firms, according to court filings. She litigated complex civil cases nationwide as lead counsel for general contractors.

Goodman served as in-house counsel for a New York insurance company, supervising defense of legal malpractice cases in multiple states, and served as General Counsel for the United States Equestrian Federation, the national governing body for equestrian sport at the Kentucky Horse Park.

In her time as an attorney, she was never sanctioned by the Kentucky Bar Association, Goodman said.

It was Larson who encouraged Goodman to run for the district judge seat with the urging for her to “give back to her community.”

Goodman was first elected to the district court bench in 2008. It was then, she said, she really started to learn about her city and county.

In 2019, she was elected to serve as a circuit court judge in Fayette County, presiding over felony cases.

“I have never, ever, thought it anything more than a privilege to sit on that bench,” Goodman said. “I do not think it is something I am entitled to. I felt it was something I had to earn.”

Goodman’s impeachment petition was filed in January by Killian Timoney, a former state representative for the 45th District. He accused her of abusing her office, citing six cases he argued constituted misconduct.

In one case, according to the petition, Goodman conducted her own research into a fatal-hit-and-run, overstepping her duties as a judge. According to the petition, Goodman searched for data that showed prosecutors charged Black defendants more harshly than other defendants.

In another, a case that determined whether the University of Kentucky had sovereign immunity — a legal doctrine that shields a government body from lawsuits — the petition and supporting transcript alleges Goodman said she willingly disobeyed a higher court’s precedent because she didn’t agree with it.

The impeachment proceedings advanced Wednesday when a committee of members of the Kentucky House of Representatives said they would issue a resolution with articles of impeachment.

The case now goes to the full House of Representatives, and if they vote to impeach Goodman, it goes to the Kentucky Senate.

This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM.

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.