Bardstown Mayor Removed from Office/ Ch 11 WHAS, staff

The Bardstown City Council has found Mayor John Royalty guilty of official misconduct and has officially removed him from his position as mayor of Bardstown.

 

This after a hearing into the matter that lasted two days, including witness testimony from both sides and closing arguments.

 

This hearing is unlike others in a courtroom, with the judge only facilitating the proceedings, but the city council making the final judgment.

 

The city council claims the mayor manipulated city employees to gain private information about Councilwoman Kecia Copeland. Copeland opened an investigation into potential misconduct by Royalty in April of 2016, after he restructured the Bardstown Police Department.

 

In November of 2016, a packet of documents containing personal information about Copeland was left at the Bardstown City hall. The city council hired a private investigator to look into the documents and presented their findings at the last city council meeting.

 

They found the mayor was manipulating city employees, asking them to lie to obtain person and private information about council members.

 

At the hearing, Brandon Brewer with Bardstown IT testified that the mayor told him to collect council iPads for “updates”, and then asked Brewer to help him look through personal emails.

 

Those emails were among the documents included in the packet left at city hall.

 

The packet also included fire records, which the Bardstown Fire Captain admitted to printing off at Royalty’s request.

 

City council claimed this evidence was enough to convict Royalty of official misconduct and remove him from his position as Mayor.

 

But the mayor stated he was within his powers to do what he did, he said he never told anyone to lie and was actually only trying to protect the city.

 

At the end of the hearing, the attorneys and judge developed an outline as to how to move forward with the unique sentencing process.

 

They decided to judge the mayor on three different charges including improper use of city personnel and equipment to access employee email, shared the private emails with a third party, and ordered city employees to lie to the city council to gain unauthorized access to their email accounts. 

The Bardstown City Council has found Mayor John Royalty guilty of official misconduct and has officially removed him from his position as mayor of Bardstown.

 

This after a hearing into the matter that lasted two days, including witness testimony from both sides and closing arguments.

 

This hearing is unlike others in a courtroom, with the judge only facilitating the proceedings, but the city council making the final judgment.

 

The city council claims the mayor manipulated city employees to gain private information about Councilwoman Kecia Copeland. Copeland opened an investigation into potential misconduct by Royalty in April of 2016, after he restructured the Bardstown Police Department.

 

In November of 2016, a packet of documents containing personal information about Copeland was left at the Bardstown City hall. The city council hired a private investigator to look into the documents and presented their findings at the last city council meeting.

 

They found the mayor was manipulating city employees, asking them to lie to obtain person and private information about council members.

 

At the hearing, Brandon Brewer with Bardstown IT testified that the mayor told him to collect council iPads for “updates”, and then asked Brewer to help him look through personal emails.

 

Those emails were among the documents included in the packet left at city hall.

 

The packet also included fire records, which the Bardstown Fire Captain admitted to printing off at Royalty’s request.

 

City council claimed this evidence was enough to convict Royalty of official misconduct and remove him from his position as Mayor.

 

But the mayor stated he was within his powers to do what he did, he said he never told anyone to lie and was actually only trying to protect the city.

 

At the end of the hearing, the attorneys and judge developed an outline as to how to move forward with the unique sentencing process.

 

They decided to judge the mayor on three different charges including improper use of city personnel and equipment to access employee email, shared the private emails with a third party, and ordered city employees to lie to the city council to gain unauthorized access to their email accounts. 

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