Royalty: Statements to press accurate regarding lawsuit against city
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, 5:19 p.m. (UPDATED Oct. 24, 8:15 p.m.) — John Royalty, a candidate for Bardstown mayor, told the Nelson County Gazette Friday his statements to the local newspaper about his 12-year-old lawsuit with the city were accurate when he was interviewed in July regarding his candidacy.
Royalty’s lawsuit came about after he was removed from his police job after a shooting incident that took place May 24, 1998. Royalty appealed then-Mayor Harry Spalding’s decision to move him to a non-police job after Spalding determined Royalty violated the police department’s Deadly Force policy.
In the July story about his candidacy for mayor, staff writer Lydelle Abbott’s touched on Royalty’s legal battle with the city and its police department. The newspaper story reported:
Royalty at one time had a lawsuit against the city, regarding what he contended to be undue termination 15 years ago, but that case was settled out of court sometime during the past six years and is no more, Royalty said.
Royalty said the suit never affected any of the decisions he made as a council member.
“All the decisions I have made on city council for the last six years has been in the benefit of the city and the people of Bardstown,” he said (click this link to read the complete Kentucky Standard story regarding Royalty’s filing for mayor).
Court documents show that at the time he spoke to the Kentucky Standard in July, the court case was indeed over — it had been dismissed with prejudice by Nelson Circuit Court Judge John David “Jack” Seay on June 24,2010. Click here to read Seay’s ruling.
Both sides – Royalty and defendants Dr. Harry Spalding, Mayor of the City of Bardstown, and the Bardstown Police Department — had presented oral arguments in the case on May 20, 2009, after the defendants submitted a motion for summary judgment.
Summary judgment is a determination made by a court without a full trial.
Royalty told the Gazette he spoke to the newspaper prior to his attorney’s decision to file an appeal in the case. The newspaper story was published the week of July 19th; Royalty’s intent to file for an appeal of the judgment was filed with Nelson Circuit Court on Friday, July 23rd. Royalty said that after he learned his attorney was filing an appeal, he contacted Kentucky Standard editor Lisa Tolliver and disclosed the appeal to her (click here to download Royalty’s Notice of Appeal filed with Nelson Circuit Court on July 23).
The Kentucky Court of Appeals has given Royalty’s appeal case number 2010-CA-1425 (basic case information can be found on the Court of Appeals web site at this link).
When asked about the statement that the lawsuit was settled out of court, Royalty said at the time he was asked, he did consider the lawsuit to be over with.
Royalty disputed the suggestion that the lawsuit — now on appeal — is ongoing. The appeal is simply a request to have the appeals court determine if the circuit court ruling was correct, he explained.
Royalty said he is pursuing his Constitutional right for due process. “It is any person’s right, if they feel their rights have been violated, to pursue their rights under the 14th Amendment,” he said. “I would support anyone who felt their rights were violated.”
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