KENTUCKY LEGISLATIVE ETHICS COMMISSION
22 Mill Creek Park
Frankfort, KY 40601

Phone 502?573-2863 Fax 502-573-2929

January 18, 2019
Hon. David Osborne, Speaker ofthe House
Capitol Annex, Room 332
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

RE: 17-LEC-01
Dear Speaker Osborne:

Thank you for your letter in which you refer to complaints filed with the Legislative Ethics
Commission in 2017, and you ask if the Commission ?fully considered" all ofthe issues raised in the
complaints. Specifically, you point to a report of deposition testimony offered in a Franklin Circuit
Court case by a person who was also a witness in the Ethics Commission case 

I have enclosed a copy of the Commission?s Final Order in and minutes of the
Commission?s April 10, 2018 adjudicatory hearing. The Order includes a reference to M.E. [Marissa
Espinosa) in paragraph 4, and states that she was the female employee who had initiated the
settlement discussion with the legislators against whom the complaints were later filed.

As stated in the Order and in the meeting minutes, Ms. Espinosa was present at the
adjudicatory hearing, and was asked by the Commission ifshe approved of a settlement as proposed
by the Commission?s Enforcement Counsel, Michael Malone, a retired Assistant Commonwealth?s
Attorney. Speaking on behalf of Ms. Espinosa, her attorney John Phillips stated that she was agreeable
to the settlement as outlined by Mr. Malone.

You ask if there is anything you can do to authorize the Ethics Commission to conduct any
further investigation the Commission ?may consider necessary?. The short answer is Kentucky
law does not allow a ?relitigating ofissues resolved in an earlier proceeding?. See: Chesley v. Abbott.
524 471 (Ky. App., 2017].

The Code of Legislative Ethics, at KRS 6.691, authorizes the Commission to refer evidence of
criminal Violations to the Attorney General, county attorney, or Commonwealth?s Attorney for
prosecution. The Commission found no such evidence in 

  

With bestjregards,