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Attorney Wants Evidence of Green Illness

The attorney representing the Louisville Metro Council Charging Committee wants Councilwoman Judy Green, D-1, to provide medical records as evidence to postpone her upcoming removal trial.Earlier this week, Green’s lawyer said the embattled councilwoman was hospitalized at an unnamed facility for an undisclosed medical condition. She is seeking to delay the hearing scheduled for September 12 by at least 30 days.The councilwoman reportedly checked herself into the hospital Monday night, according to her attorney, Derwin Webb, who still hasn't spoken to his client in over a week and continues to receive all information from her husband.But attorney Gregg Hovious opposes the request to delay the trial further and says Green should provide an affidavit, medical documents or doctor's note.“Anytime you file a motion for continuance based upon an alleged medical condition you have to have real evidence not only of the condition but of the severity and why that would keep you from going forward to trial as decided previously,” says Hovious, who is representing the five-member charging committee that impeached Green. "Any kind of medical evidence should always be kept under sealed, that's not public record. It's for the deciders on the issue, so we'd have no objection to it being filed under seal."Webb's motion did not include any medical records about Green's illness, but it said the councilwoman is currently under a "doctor’s care following a serious medical condition” and that it is uncertain when she will be released from his care."I have not heard of any situation like this in the past, but whatever we need to provide we will do that. I'm surprised, but I'm not shocked by the request," Webb told WFPL in a telephone interview, adding he's more concerned about her health than removal trial. "Whatever we have to do to prove that she does have some medical issues we will do that."Earlier this year, the Metro Ethics Commission ruled Green deliberately violated the city’s code of ethics in two separate complaints. In the first case, the panel recommended her ouster from office and slapped Green with a letter of censure and public reprimand.Green has appealed both of those decisions in Jefferson Circuit Court.In June, council members Tina Ward-Pugh, D-9, Barbara Shanklin, D-2, Madonna Flood, D-24, Stuart Benson, R-20, and Kevin Kramer, R-11, signed a petition to expel Green from her seat. In July, the remaining council members took an oath to act as a court that decide Green's fate by a two-thirds vote.Councilman Kelly Downard, R-16, who is presiding over the hearing, says the court will meet next Thursday before the full council meeting to decide by a majority vote on whether to postpone Green's trial.When the court voted to grant Green's first request for a continuance last month, many city lawmakers voiced concern about delaying the hearing.Hovious also filed a pretrial motion Thursday to exclude any and all evidence that he claims isn’t relevant to the two ethics allegations facing Green in the removal trial. He says it is an attempt to keep the trial from dragging on and bar unnecessary character witnesses.For months, Green has alluded to other members making similar ethical violations. The motion specifically mentions Green and her supporters making those allegations on numerous occasions in the media without any specific examples or evidence to back up the claims."None of these vague ... allegations, statements or accusations concern conduct that relates to The Green Clean Team or to the charge of funding hidden 'subgrants' through the 100 Black Men organziation," Hovious writes.