Misty Noel wants a new judge. Her attorney argues Judge Larry Medlock, who’s presided over multiple cases in the high-profile investigation of her husband, former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel, is biased.
Court records filed Wednesday point to TV news coverage of a May auction Medlock attended and participated in as evidence he can’t be impartial.
Multiple classic cars seized as part of the investigation were being auctioned. Medlock was on stage with the auctioneer when one car went for $175,000. The judge slammed a gavel multiple times, apparently recreating the moment in April 2024 where he broke a gavel sound block after finding Noel in contempt of court and sending him back to jail.
“The news footage from May 3, 2025, shows the presiding judge enjoying the moment and discussing having dinner with the auctioneer, which seems to indicate a lack of judicial neutrality, and that he relishes his status as the judge in these cases,” court records filed this week by Misty Noel’s attorney read.
The attorney argues this could impact decisions about whether to find her in contempt and set aside her plea after a recent TV interview she did, as well as her post-incarceration probation.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Bart McMahon filed a motion for a change of judge. He also argued the judge can’t throw out the plea because the judgement has already been entered, and wrote that her “out of court statements do not constitute indirect contempt."
Noel pleaded guilty in May to 10 felonies for theft and tax evasion. She admitted to spending more than $660,000 on personal goods and services on a credit card belonging to New Chapel EMS. Jamey Noel operated that company, which received taxpayer money.
The same day she was sentenced, WLKY aired a news special in which Noel said she didn’t knowingly do anything illegal, that her husband ran the family’s finances and she thought he owned New Chapel.
The judge has called her back to court to explain why she shouldn’t be held in contempt. He may set aside her plea and move the case toward trial.
“This court cannot find an individual guilty if they profess and maintain their innocence,” the judge’s order reads.
McMahon argued in court records that a judge is required to nominate three impartial fact finders in a contempt case. He said in the filing that Noel is concerned the decision is already made and “and the presiding judge’s apparent animus towards the defendant and her family has more than jaundiced his eyes, but reveals actual malice or bias towards her where the court will find her in contempt and set aside the plea to inflict greater punishment upon her, if she is later convicted by a jury or enters a guilty plea.”
The attorney also argued Medlock cannot set aside the plea agreement once it’s been accepted. He said Noel “never made statements of innocence under oath, and that “...The Court has taken her statements in the WLKY interview out of context.”
It will be up to Medlock to rule on a change of judge. In February, he denied a motion for former Clark County Council Member John Miller to get a different judge. Miller, charged in the investigation with conflict of interest, also argued Medlock could be biased.
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