“Hardest pill I had to swallow was learning that, no matter how good you could be to someone, no matter how much you love them, they can & will turn their back on you & there’s absolutely nothing you can do but suck it up & keep moving forward.”
That’s a meme that Lincoln County Magistrate Kim Lovejoy Clayton posted on her Facebook page last December, one month before she fired her office assistant, Heather Lucas. If, indeed, she was betrayed by Lucas or someone else she trusted, it would be an honest, if mawkishly self-righteous sentiment. If, on the other hand, the unnamed person she accused of disloyalty is someone she took advantage of, Clayton’s pity-party post would be an outrageous lie.
Did Lucas betray Clayton? A judge and jury in Kanawha Circuit Court will have to figure that one out, now that Lucas has filed a complaint against Clayton, charging that the magistrate forced her to work on Clayton’s re-election campaign during office hours.
Lucas claims she was compelled to address campaign flyers, etc. on the taxpayer’s dime.
“Your job is to work for me,” Clayton allegedly told Lucas. “Be quiet, do your job, shut your mouth, or you will be fired.”
Of course, it’s a classic case of she-said/she-said, but, if proven, it would be devastating for the recently re-elected magistrate.
According to Lucas, Clayton clearly knew that what she was asking was illegal, even instructing her assistant to to make sure no one else in the office saw what she was doing.
The judge with seemingly bad judgment also ordered her assistant to place a campaign sign in her own yard and campaign magnets on her personal car, Lucas says. “If you want to keep your job, you better go vote for me,” Clayton allegedly told her.
Meanwhile, Lucas was cooperating with a state investigation into possible election fraud on the part of Clayton.
So, did Lucas betray Clayton, or did Clayton betray her – and the public trust? We’ll find out when the magistrate has her day in court.