#Kentucky judge’s secretary denies threesome, says it was a prank

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Kenton County Family Court Judge Dawn Gentry
Meg Vogel/AP

A suspended Kentucky judge accused of turning her chambers into a glorified frat house and having a threesome with staffers was only pulling a prank, her secretary testified in court this week, according to a report.

Judge Dawn Gentry allegedly hired boyfriend Stephen Penrose — a former pastor and her band’s guitar player — to have a threesome with her secretary, Laura Aubrey.

The Kenton County Family Court judge was hit with a dozen charges by the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission related to the Animal House antics in which she allegedly allowed staffers to get drunk on the job — all while abusing her power to win re-election.

The charges accuse Gentry, who has been suspended with pay, of using sex, coercion and retaliation as tools in her judgeship.

Gentry — who served on a panel to help abused children — also allegedly tried to seduce another member of the panel, attorney Katherine Schulz, into having a second threesome.

Aubrey testified that she didn’t see anyone boozing it up or sexual shenanigans — but said there had been rumors among courthouse employees of a tryst among her, Gentry and Penrose, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

So they decided to make some noise one day in early 2019, she testified.

“I will tell you there were two occasions when the rumors got so ridiculous that, yes, we may have been laughing and kidding around and basically said, ‘They’re going to talk. Let’s give them something to talk about,’” Aubrey said, according to the outlet.

During earlier testimony, courthouse custodians, deputy clerks and other staffers described alcohol containers found in Gentry’s chambers, singing and guitar playing, as well as moaning and grunting sounds.

Schulz said Gentry kissed her in a bathroom and propositioned her for a threesome, which the attorney said she declined, the Enquirer reported.

The Judicial Conduct Commission claims Gentry fired a staffer to create a job for Penrose, who Gentry admitted earlier this week had sent her nude photos she kept on her cellphone, according to the Enquirer.

Defense witness Yolonda Reis has testified that there was no sexual relationship between Gentry and Penrose.

When asked by the commission if it would surprise her that Penrose sent the nude image, Reis — a drummer in South of Cincy who works at the Kenton County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office — said, “He was kind of obnoxious like that,” according to the paper.

“I think he thought an awful lot of himself,” she added.

And in testimony Thursday, one of Gentry’s friends defended her against the charge, saying that’s not the kind of judge she knows.

Debra Pleatman and Gentry were members of a social group composed of women in the legal profession who called themselves HAGs, which stood for Happily Aging Gracefully, according to the Enquirer.

One of the charges is that Gentry didn’t disclose her friendship with Pleatman — and oversaw four of her cases in her courtroom. Pleatman testified that the attorneys involved in the child custody cases already knew about their friendship.

Pleatman also denied that Gentry and Penrose had a sexual relationship.

“They were good friends,” she said. “He was her pastor. She relied on him in that role. She had a lot going on in her life.”