You knew the defense would come soon. The Republicans have to have some sort of strategy to hold it together or they stand no chance at all of surviving this fiasco.Tom Loftus over at the Courier Journal has a great story on it.

Nighbert defense targets Stumbo on two fronts
Firing of worker, legal conflict cited

By Tom Loftus
tloftus@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A state official charged with firing an employee for political reasons says he plans to defend himself by showing that Attorney General Greg Stumbo had fired the same man.

Acting Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert also said in a court motion that Stumbo's office should be barred from prosecuting him because he may call Stumbo and his employees as witnesses.

In the motion filed yesterday in Franklin District Court, Nighbert's lawyer said Stumbo fired Mike Duncan in January 2004.

Stumbo spokeswoman Vicki Glass said she could not comment on the motion because her office had not seen it.

She said Stumbo's predecessor as attorney general, Ben Chandler, had hired Duncan as a non-merit employee, and Stumbo decided not to keep him.

Non-merit employees can be fired without explanation and are not protected by the state civil service law. Duncan was a merit employee working in the Transportation Cabinet's Office of the Inspector General when he was fired under Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration.

"We have no indication that his job performance was anything but excellent," Glass said of Duncan's work for Chandler's office.

Nighbert is one of nine current or past Fletcher administration officials indicted by a special Franklin County grand jury on charges of violating the state merit system law, which prohibits hiring or firing rank-and-file state employees on the basis of political considerations.

Nighbert is charged with three misdemeanors -- political discrimination, official misconduct and criminal conspiracy. The political discrimination and conspiracy counts each carry a penalty of 30 days to six months in jail, forfeiture of office and a five-year ban on state employment. The official misconduct charge has a penalty of up to 12 months in jail and a $500 fine.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have claimed Nighbert and two other transportation officials fired Duncan in May for actively supporting Chandler in his 2003 race for governor against Fletcher.

Nighbert's lawyer, Howard Mann, has said that Duncan did not complete a six-month probation period and could be fired for any reason. Mann said Duncan was fired for poor job performance and not political reasons.

Glass released a copy of a letter that David MacKnight, Chandler's deputy attorney general, sent to Duncan that said in part: "It is routine for a new administration in an elected office to hire new executive staff members. The fact that the new administration does not intend to retain you in your non-merit (unclassified) position has absolutely no connection to your job performance."

In an interview, Duncan said Stumbo's staff did not tell him his performance was unsatisfactory. He said he understood that, as a non-merit employee, he could be let go. "It was totally understandable and predictable," Duncan said.

Mann included with his motion a copy of a "Notice of Determination" by the state Division of Unemployment Insurance, which later approved unemployment benefits for Duncan. It says in part that Stumbo had discharged Duncan "for failing to perform the work to the employer's satisfaction."

It also says Duncan "became unemployed due to a change in administration."

Mann also said in his motion that he intended to call Stumbo prosecutors to show that Duncan's unsatisfactory performance in the attorney general's office continued in the transportation agency, prompting his firing there.

Mann said that state law allows for disqualification of a prosecutor who "is likely to be a material witness in the proceeding."

Mann said that if Stumbo is disqualified as prosecutor, the judge could assign the prosecution to the Franklin County attorney or commonwealth's attorney.

Response

This is more floundering by the administration and grasping at straws. With felonies abound and witness tampering against one person, this goes much further than just one employee now. Even if Stumbo is replaced, this still doesn't look good for the administration. Fletcher won't be back in 2007.

posted by Stithmeister @ 10:44 PM
 
0 Comments:


Post a Comment

<< Home