Lawsuit: Kim Davis Hid Inheritance To Avoid Paying $565K

Here’s a question: Is there anyone who is as figuratively and quite literally invested in upholding their bigotry as former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who, over the past decade and change, has found herself drowning in legal woes over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?

For those who are unfamiliar with the Grinch Who Tried to Steal Gay Marriage, after the U.S. Supreme Court established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in 2015, Davis, who worked as a county clerk in Eastern Kentucky at the time, made national headlines for ignoring the SCOTUS decision and refusing to issue licenses to gay couples, citing her religious beliefs, because she failed to understand that, as a government employee, it wasn’t her constitutional rights that were being violated, but it was she who was violating the rights of others. Well, that got her sued, resulting in a $565,000 federal civil rights judgment against her. Now, Davis is facing a new lawsuit, accusing her of hiding inherited assets to avoid paying what she owes.

My God, hate and bigotry can make one unattractive, amirite?

According to the Lexington Herald Leader, attorneys for two Kentucky men who successfully sued Davis and were awarded a total of $100,000 in damages in 2023 are accusing Davis of lying under oath about the inheritance to defraud his clients, David Ermold and David Moore, who represent one of four couples who were awarded damages after suing Davis for directing her office to deny same-sex couples marriage licenses, because, to quote what she told reporters at the time, she was acting “under God’s authority.”

“This is a slam dunk in any court,” Lexington attorney Michael Gartland, who has represented Ermold and Moore since 2015, told the Herald Leader. “The minute her mother died, those properties were half hers with her brother, and that’s a problem for her.”

Davis reportedly transferred her half-interest in property she inherited from her mother late last year to her husband, son, brother and sister-in-law, which Gartland said she did to avoid having it garnished to pay his clients what they were awarded by a federal judge. Last year, a federal appeals court affirmed that judgment, but, according to Gartland, his clients haven’t received “a penny” of the damages, attorneys fees and other expenses they’re due. According to the Herald Ledger, Davis, instead, submitted post-judgment written responses to Gartland, in which she claimed, under oath, that she doesn’t own or have any interest in property and that she is not the beneficiary of any trust, which may be true now that she conveniently transferred everything to her family members, but it wasn’t true when she made the claim, Gartland says.

In fact, Gartland claims he and his co-counsel, Joseph Buckles, searched probate court and Rowan County land records and found Davis inherited a half-share interest in her mother’s $735,230 estate in January 2025.

Here’s a little more on the legal particulars, via the Herald Leader:

She and her brother were appointed co-administrators of that estate a month later, and her brother executed an affidavit of descent that officially made them both 50% heirs on April 8 — exactly 33 days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s final liability and damages judgment against her.

On that same day, Kim Davis and her brother Darold Rayburn Bailey Jr. transferred a Morehead home in their mother’s estate to Bailey Jr., his wife, and Kim Davis’ husband Joe Davis, effectively writing her off of the deed, according to court records. Then, in May 2025, Kim Davis and her brother transferred a 50-acre farm parcel and a separate three-bedroom home to a trust for which her husband and son are beneficiaries.

The transfers were made for “the love and affection which the parties have for each other … and for no monetary consideration whatsoever,” but their fair cash value would have exceeded $400,000, half of which belonged to Davis, the attorneys say.

Well, now, that sure is a lot of wheeling, dealing and bearing false witness for someone who claims God is her boss and he told her to gatekeep the institution of marriage from the same-sex sinners here to sully it.

So, Gartland and his clients are now asking a judge to void those transfers so the federal court can place judgment liens on the properties she apparently thought she had successfully hidden from the courts.

“This is our best chance to get money,” Gartland said. “This is the best fraudulent transfer case I’ve ever dealt with. It’s just — it’s just that simple; it’s open and shut.”

Well, let’s hope so. Being a bigot should be expensive, especially when said bigot is put in a position of authority, where they can weaponize their bigotry.

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