For the third time in recent months, Attorney General Russell Coleman has intervened to challenge a decision by Fayette County Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.
In June, Coleman requested a murder case be reinstated against a man whose charges were dismissed by Goodman late last year because of a lack of evidence. That case is pending.
In a high-profile case, he touted an “extraordinary” filing this month after an appeals court sided with his decision to step in and order a man recently released on bond be sent back to prison, reversing Goodman’s ruling.
And then, on Wednesday, Coleman announced his office had appealed Goodman’s decision to grant probation to a man who pleaded guilty to dealing fentanyl, calling the sentence “unlawful” and “lenient.”
The trend of repeatedly challenging decisions by a single judge is unusual, experts say. One described the method used by Coleman to intervene in the case of the man released on bond as “legal warfare.”
But Coleman argued he’s not singling out Judge Goodman. Rather, he says, he seeks out cases from across the state where he feels his office needs to intervene.
“We would zealously seek appellate relief from rulings of the Fayette Circuit Court or any other court,” Kevin Grout, spokesperson for Coleman’s office, said.
Goodman declined to comment on the seeming discord between her office and the attorney general, instead opting to talk only about the facts of the individual cases.
“As a judge, I would never allow this community to be in danger,” Goodman said in an interview after the second of the three cases in which Coleman intervened. “I have always followed the court of appeals’ instructions, and did so in this circumstance.”
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