Robert F. Stephens

Robert Francis Stephens, Jr. was born August 26, 1928, in Covington, Kentucky, to Robert Francis and his first wife, Helen Macke.[1] He was the only child of this marriage, which ended in divorce, but his father would marry twice more, and each marriage brought Stephens a step-sibling.[1] At age 7, Stephens moved with his mother to Miami, Florida, where her new husband, Joseph Dressman, was the city editor for the Miami Herald.[1] When the paper was sold, Stephens' step-father lost his job, and the family moved back to Northern Kentucky, where Dressman got a job with The Cincinnati Times-Star.[1]

Stephens graduated as valedictorian of his class at Beechwood High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, in 1945.[2] He joined the United States Navy for a year and served in World War II before completing a pre-law curriculum at Indiana University in 1948 and receiving his law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1951.[3] After graduation, he worked as a law clerk for future Kentucky Governor Bert T. Combs, then a justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.[1] In 1952, he began work as an attorney for the state Department of Insurance.[2] From 1953 to 1958, he served as counsel for Savage Lumber and Manufacturing Company, a Lexington company owned by his father-in-law.[1][2] For the next three years, he was a partner in a Lexington law firm with Harry B. Miller, Jr., but left the firm and pursued a solo legal practice and political career.[1]

In 1985, Stephens served as a vestry member at Lexington's Christ Church Cathedral.[2]

On June 27, 1953, Stephens married Lola June Sandusky; the couple had four children – three sons and a daughter.[4][5] They separated in 1983 and later divorced.[6][7]

Stephens married his second wife, Pattie White McClellan, on November 26, 1985.[1][8] The couple separated on September 1, 1990, and Stephens filed for divorce on June 1, 1992.[9] When the case was assigned to one of Stephens' former political opponents, his lawyer, State Senator Michael Maloney, withdrew the divorce petition and re-filed it the next day.[9] When the second petition was assigned to a different judge, Stephens' wife's lawyer accused Stephens of judge shopping, alleging the second judge had political connections to both Stephens and Maloney.[8] On appeal, the Fayette County Domestic Relations Commissioner reinstated the original petition, saying Maloney should have asked the judge to recuse himself rather than withdrawing and re-filing the petition.[9] Ultimately, both judges recused themselves from hearing the case, and it was randomly assigned to a third judge, who finalized the divorce on September 28, 1993.[10][11]

In 1964, Stephens become the county attorney for Fayette County.[12] Running as a Democrat in 1969, he defeated incumbent county judge Joe E. Johnson III.[13] In this position, he acquired several acres of park land for the city, including the 105 acres (0.42 km²) Shillito Park.[3] He also oversaw the planning of the Lexington Civic Center and created the Bluegrass Area Development District, serving as its first chair in 1971.[3] After being re-elected in 1973, Stephens was a leader in the movement to consolidate the governments of Lexington and Fayette County, forming the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in 1974.[3] The position of county judge lost much of its power in the merger and was subsequently abolished by an amendment to the state constitution in 1975.[3] Stephens considered running for mayor of Lexington, but Governor Julian Carroll advised him against it, and he decided not to enter the race.[1]

In 1975, Stephens defeated David van Horn in the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Kentucky.[14] He won the general election over Republican Joe Whittle.[15] As attorney general, he strengthened consumer protection measures and unified the state's Commonwealth's attorneys offices under the office of the attorney general to provide them with more support in their duties.[3]

In 1984, Stephens received the American Judicature Society's Herbert Harley Award, in part for his work in making continuing legal education mandatory for judges in Kentucky.[16] The Kentucky Bar Association named him its Outstanding Judge of the Year in 1986.[31]

Just before the expiration of her term in December 1987, Governor Martha Layne Collins appointed Stephens to a seat on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees.[32] Before assuming the position, Stephens requested a non-binding opinion from the Ethics Committee of the Kentucky Judiciary on the legality of his simultaneously serving as a Supreme Court Justice and a university trustee.[33] The panel advised Stephens not to provide legal counsel to the board, not to raise funds for the university, not to vote as a trustee on any matter likely to result in a lawsuit, and to recuse himself as a justice from any case involving the university.[33] Stephens agreed to these restrictions and began his term as trustee in January 1988.[33] His term expired in 1992, and then-Governor Brereton Jones refused to re-appoint him, along with two other state court judges who sat on other university boards, because he felt there was too much potential for conflicts of interest.[34]

In 1991, Stephens received a Justice Award from the Kentucky Women's Advocates "for creating the Gender Bias Task Force to investigate the fairness of the judicial system for women and for making records regarding domestic violence public."[35] The organization gave Stephens a second Justice Award in 1995 for "his support of the adoption of gender fairness into state judicial language and his continued support of equal justice for women".[36]

Stephens was elected president of the Conference of Chief Justices in 1992.[27] In 1993, staff members for the Kentucky Supreme Court compiled and published 500 copies of a 55-page book of Stephens' accomplishments entitled "A Decade of Progress for Kentucky Courts".[37] The book was mailed to every state's chief justice and to every judge in Kentucky.[37] Critics complained that the book contained no criticism of Stephens, was researched during employees' regular work hours, and was mailed at state taxpayers' expense.[37] Administrative Office of the Courts Director Don Cetrulo ultimately reimbursed the state for the postage and donated three weeks of vacation time to cover the time spent researching the book.[38]

Stephens was inducted into the University of Kentucky Law Alumni Association Hall of Fame in 1996.[39] The Robert F. Stephens Justice Center, which opened in 2001, houses the district and circuit courts for Fayette County.[40]