Lawsuit

Dear Editor, Charles Dickens wrote in his book, Nicholas Nickleby, “gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal.” The demand for five million dollars from a school district summons the order for gold. Educators make many decisions throughout their instructional days, one of which is managing behaviors. I grew up with nine siblings and have five children of my own. Behavior management and discipline has been a part of my upbringing and parenting, to be accountable for my actions, which begins when we are children.

HARRODSBURG - After seven years of acrimony, police calls, lawsuits and untold legal bills, it appears peace will soon be coming to the neighborhood around Aspen Hall. The controversial bed and breakfast and weekend party place hosted an estate sale this weekend, selling everything from kitchen equipment to furniture to personal items. Aspen Hall owner Andrew Romero confirmed Friday that his family was pulling up stakes before his wife, Julie Romero, said they would have no comment on their impending departure.

A former Boyle County deputy sheriff has filed a lawsuit against the Fiscal Court alleging he was wrongfully terminated from his post because magistrates had an ax to grind. Jeff Stith, whose employment was terminated by Sheriff Marty Elliott in February after the Fiscal Court cut Elliott's budget, filed the complaint last week in Boyle Circuit Court. It names Elliott, Judge-Executive Harold McKinney, Magistrates Dickie Mays, Donald Coffman, Phil Sammons, Jack Hendricks, Patty Burke and John Caywood, and County Attorney Richard Campbell as defendants.

JUNCTION¿CITY¿ - James Albert Coontz got mad as a hornet Wednesday afternoon after learning that his home on West Grubbs Lane was featured on the front page of The Advocate-Messenger in a story about Junction City filing lawsuits against property owners to collect maintenance fees on unkempt lots. “It hit the newspaper before I knew anything about it,” Coontz said later Wednesday during an interview at Hardee's. Coontz is named as defendant in a lawsuit filed last week in Boyle Circuit Court that alleges he owes the city $3,000 for 10 separate clean-ups of his property by city employees between May 2010 and August 2011, and also $40.32 in back taxes.

A Nicholasville woman's lawsuit accusing her former dentist of negligence when a denture implant screwdriver dropped down her throat has garnered national attention. After a month, the screwdriver, an instrument roughly the size of a thumbnail, lodged itself in Lena David's digestive tract, which led to abdominal pain and an invasive surgery June 23, 2011 for which she was hospitalized for six days. David's attorney, Edwin H. Clark, filed the suit against W.B. Galbreath, D.M.D.

LANCASTER - Garrard County Jailer Kevin Middleton is suing Fiscal Court, alleging he is owed thousands of dollars in back pay and is currently being paid a salary less than allowed by law. The lawsuit, filed last week in Garrard Circuit Court, seeks to settle a dispute over Middleton's pay since he was appointed jailer to replace the retiring Kenny Tuggle in January 2009 and since he won election to the office in January 2011. It claims Middleton's salary of $20,000 a year is unconstitutional because it does not meet the $31,000 annual salary being paid to Tuggle when he retired.

HARRODSBURG - The wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Harrodsburg police chief Rodney Harlow has been dismissed. Mercer Circuit Court Judge Darren Peckler granted a motion for summary judgment last week in favor of the city of Harrodsburg, Mayor Eddie Long and Commissioners Bubby Isham, Kerry Anness and Charlie Mattingly, agreeing there was nothing improper about Harlow's termination as part-time police chief in December. Peckler ruled the City Commission could dismiss Harlow at will because he was not an elected official and was not protected under the state's Policeman's Bill of Rights law because, as a part-time chief, he did not receive Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program funds to supplement his pay. Harlow retired as assistant police chief in 2007 and then came back to the department as part-time chief in 2009.

LEXINGTON - A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit of a Garrard County property owner who claimed Fiscal Court and county officials violated her constitutional rights by allowing the public access to her land. In 2008, Donna Scott sued Fiscal Court, Garrard Judge-Executive John Wilson and Magistrate Fred Simpson in U.S. District Court, records show. Scott owns land adjoining Poor Ridge Road and a “private pathway” called Lanham Lane. In 2007, Scott believed her children were endangered when people began driving ATVs across Lanham Lane to access adjoining properties so she installed a locked gate to deny them access.

LANCASTER - A Garrard County company has filed a lawsuit alleging that its former plant manager breached his loyality to the company by enriching himself at the company's expense. Mine Shield LLC filed the complaint recently in Garrard Circuit Court alleging that Calvin Hays, as plant manager, exercised control over certain vendors and contractors that were not in the best interest of the company, but instead benefitted another company, Chinqaupin Enterprises LLC, that Hays was involved with.

In a circuit court hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge Hunter Daugherty removed the Jessamine County Fiscal Court from a lawsuit brought against it by northwestern county residents, county attorney Brian Goettl said. In October 2010, residents filed a suit against the fiscal court and the Jessamine County Fire District that challenged the legality of a fire-protection subdistrict in their area and sought to have the parties pay 16 years of back taxes. Daugherty also ruled the statute creating the subdistrict in 1995 was constitutional, Goettl said.