Prosecutor suspended after report on remarks

An assistant county attorney who previously received a reprimand for deriding Korean-Americans as "foreigners" was suspended Thursday without pay after The Courier-Journal published a story showing that he has a history of ridiculing defendants in court.

County Attorney Mike O'Connell said the comments cited by The Courier-Journal "are quite disturbing to me and this office" and that Karl Price would be removed from the staff pending a review of the cases.

On Tuesday O'Connell had ordered that Price undergo sensitivity training, saying in a letter that he had "served admirably and with integrity … for 25 years."

But a review of arraignments in April and May shows Price disparaged several defendants and was repeatedly admonished for it by the court.

•When a black defendant appeared who was caught running away from police, Price, who himself is African-American, said: "I thought you black guys could run, but you never get away from police."

•When a defendant, an immigrant, said she wouldn't pay her bail, Price warned her she would stay in jail "or just go back to — what country are you from?"

District Judge David Holton told him "that's enough of that."

•When an alleged domestic violence victim urged that her boyfriend be released on his own recognizance — and called it "RR," rather than "ROR," as it is known in the courthouse — Price mocked her for using the wrong term. She apologized but Holton said: "You're doing fine ma'am. I'm sorry Mr. Price was being disrespectful of you. You shouldn't be disrespectful to prosecuting witnesses, Mr. Price." In an interview, the witness said the experience was "humiliating."

•When a defendant wanted on charges in Elizabethtown appeared for his arraignment using a walker, Price told him to "push that thing down to Hardin."

Over a public defender's objections, Price also repeatedly made comments that assumed defendants were guilty. He told one woman charged with shoplifting in several cities, for example, that she was "stealing all over the state."

Price referred questions to the county attorney's office. O'Connell said Wednesday night that he hadn't received any complaints about Price's remarks in arraignment court but would investigate any brought to his attention.

Experts on prosecutor ethics said Price's comments were improper and may have violated the rules of professional conduct.

Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who teaches at Pace Law School, said Price's remarks were "beyond the pale" and "absolutely prejudicial to the administration of justice. They give the courts a bad name."

Bruce Green, who teaches at Fordham Law School, said Price's statements "seem gratuitous, demeaning, undignified and, to some extent, they reflect improper bias."

Green said the statements violate a National District Attorneys Association standard that says prosecutors should act with "courtesy" and with "proper restraint and dignity." He also said they violate the American Bar Association's model rules, which say lawyers should not manifest "by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status."

Price, 53, was admitted to the bar in 1990 and joined the county attorney's office in 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for a circuit court judgeship in 2006. He describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as a single father and a "Christian who places God first in my life and the life of my children."

Jay Lambert, director of training for the Louisville public defender's office, said Price has a "history of commenting on litigants' national origin, race, sexual orientation and even physical disabilities" and "regularly makes comments in derogation of citizens' right to remain silent and the presumption of innocence."

Lambert noted that as early as 2009, a public defender unsuccessfully sought to have Price and his office removed from a case because she said he had referred out of court to her client and one of his witnesses as "f---ing faggots."

Price and the office denied he said it, and a special judge ruled she couldn't find that he did based upon "a preponderance of the evidence." Lambert said O'Connell should now revisit the matter based on Price's more recent comments.

This week's reprimand came after the Kentucky Trial Court Review reported that as part of his part-time private practice, Price sent a letter May 22 to the attorneys for Hwang Martial Arts Academy that repeatedly referred to the company's Korean-American owners, who are longtime U.S. citizens, as "foreigners." He also accused them of relying on "some ancient Asian principle" in rejecting a proposal to return some of his client's money.

Price told Insider Louisville last week that his remarks were not derogatory and that he assumed some of the Hwangs were "illegal aliens" because of their "broken English." He apologized for the language in the letter "if I've offended anyone."

But Mimi Hwang, the daughter of the academy's owner, has called Price's remarks "blatantly racist" and said at a news conference Wednesday night that the reprimand was insufficient.

In a letter to Price on Tuesday, O'Connell told him that he would receive a written reprimand and be required to attend sensitivity training. O'Connell said Price's letter, while written in his private practice, violated the office's principles of behavior and discredited it.

"While I sympathize with your explanation of why you made these comments, the comments were discriminatory on their face and can never be justified," O'Connell wrote.

Still, O'Connell said, "I am confident you will never again make such inappropriate statements."

The newspaper's review also found that at an October 2013 arraignment of a defendant who said he was on disability, Judge Sandra McLaughin asked Price, "How come we're working?" Price replied, "Because they won't."

During an arraignment April 20 of a black defendant who was arrested with a gun after fleeing from police on foot, Price said he was "lucky he didn't get shot" because "it was a white police officer."

On April 21 after Judge Holton told a defendant, a lesbian charged with assaulting her spouse, to have no contact with "the lady who this allegedly happened with," Price said: "She didn't say it was a lady. She said it was her wife."

"Enough of that," Holton snapped.

Danny Kang, the lawyer for Hwang Martial Arts, said that he had "serious concerns for our judicial system that employs someone who would openly discriminate against Asian-Americans."

Louisville lawyer Greg Troutman said in a comment on the Kentucky Trial Court Review website that he "didn't know Archie Bunker practiced law."

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189