Kim Davis Faces New Lawsuit Over Alleged Asset Concealment
Kim Davis, the former Rowan County Clerk, is at the center of controversy once again as new legal challenges arise concerning her previous actions against same-sex marriage. Known for her opposition to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples post the 2015 Supreme Court decision, Davis now faces allegations of asset concealment to sidestep financial obligations arising from past lawsuits.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, Davis, citing religious beliefs, refused to comply, leading to her being sued. The outcome was a civil rights judgment ordering her to pay $565,000. Recently, Davis is accused of transferring inherited property to family members to avoid fulfilling this financial commitment.
Two men from Kentucky, David Ermold and David Moore, who were awarded $100,000 in damages, assert that Davis misrepresented her financial state under oath to evade compensation. “The minute her mother died, those properties were half hers with her brother, and that’s a problem for her,” remarked Lexington attorney Michael Gartland, referencing Davis’s alleged asset transfers.
According to the Lexington Herald Leader, Davis reportedly shifted her share of inherited property to relatives last year, actions Gartland argues were deliberate attempts to nullify the judgment against her. Despite a federal appeals court upholding the financial ruling, Gartland claims his clients have yet to receive any payments.
Gartland’s investigation into probate and land records revealed that Davis and her brother became co-administrators of their mother’s estate, valued at $735,230, in early 2025. Shortly after, they transferred properties to family members, seemingly to obscure Davis’s ownership.
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.
This intricate legal battle over asset concealment highlights the ongoing ramifications of Davis’s actions. Gartland and his clients are now petitioning the court to annul the property transfers, aiming to enforce the judgment liens on the assets Davis allegedly attempted to hide.
“This is our best chance to get money,” Gartland stated. “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.”
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