Judge Philpot's tortured past

In the publicity for his autobiography, Judge Tim Philpot promises to reveal a titillating “bombshell.”

This turns out to be the revelation that the Judge’s mother was impregnated and abandoned by another man prior to her marriage to the Judge’s alcoholic father. The baby girl from this pregnancy was anonymously adopted in Cincinnati and could hypothetically be one of many women appearing in his court.

During numerous speeches, Judge Philpot describes his parent’s rocky marriage, attributed to his abusive and alcoholic father cavorting abroad while his mother stayed home for many years during the war. He describes his own medically “miraculous” conception attributed to post-graduate celebrations.

We all have baggage, and it is unfair to punish children for the action of their parents. So, it’s all the more puzzling why a family court judge describes out of wedlock children as “bastard(s)” in a book he dedicates to the children in his court?

Needless to say, there is enough in his book to keep a team of therapists busy for quite some time. In the meanwhile Kentucky families need judges who are not torn by inner angst and conflict.