Kentucky

Didn't the Commodores have a song entitled, "Once, Twice, Three Times A Recusal"?  Or something like that.

Actually, if you applied the song to the bid-rigging case in federal court it would need to be extended to "Once, Twice, Thrice, Four Times a Recusal".  As the revolving recusal door has gone from Reeves, to Caldwell, to Hood, and finally Forester.

The revolving robed recusals makes it hard to keep a judge on the bench to hear the case.  Yes, I know I have not been posting much on this series of events, but when there is eventually a trial judge whose robes are beyond any appearance of a prior contact or relationship with any of the parties, then maybe, just maybe they will take Justice Brandeis's advice and remember that a little sunshine is a wonderful disinfectant.

Or to make it a little more blunt.... Open the doors and let the public in and the Fourth Estate see how the public's business has been conducted and how the public treasury has been spent.  It's our money in the mix.

Here is a post to update you on the developments thanks to Beth Musgrave of the Bluegrass Politics Blog.  The pics are of Bill Nighbert on the left and Leonard Lawson on the right.

U.S. District Judge Karl Forester has been assigned to oversee a federal criminal trial involving the alleged bid-tampering of more than $130 million in state road contracts.



The first part of a trial of contractor Leonard Lawson, former Transportation Cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert, and Lawson employee Brian Billings was originally set to start Tuesday, but U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves stepped down from the case after discovering that he had a potential conflict of interest. T



wo other judges -- U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell and U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood -- were assigned the case on Friday but had to recuse because of potential conflicts of interest. In an order entered Monday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman, the chief judge of the Eastern District of Kentucky, assigned the case to Forester, who is on senior status, or semi-retirement. Forester has not filed a notice saying that he might have to recuse himself. The three men have been charged with conspiring to buy internal cabinet estimates of road projects and then covering up the conspiracy. All three have pleaded not guilty. The trial has been indefinitely delayed. -- Beth Musgrave