Steve Nunn's Case Takes A Bizzare Turn Involving Louie And Beula: "You See The Best Of The Bad People And The Worst Of Good People In Divorce Cases."

To read more, including comments on the Courier Journal website where the stoery is published, follow this link:Louie Nunn accused son Steve of abusing him, other family members
By Joseph Gerth and Tom Loftus

GLASGOW, Ky. — Former Gov. Louie B. Nunn accused his son, Steve, of abusing him and other family members, including Steve's first wife, and threatened to have him arrested if the abuse continued, according to a letter placed in a court file in 1995.

The hand-written, nine-page letter was filed as an exhibit in the divorce case of Louie Nunn and his wife, Beula Cornelius Nunn, in Barren Circuit Court.

On Monday Steve Nunn was charged with the Sept. 11 murder of his former fiancée, Amanda Ross, who accused him earlier this year of striking her in the face and obtained an emergency protective order against him.

Because he is accused of violating that order in connection with Ross' murder, Nunn could face the death penalty.

In the undated letter, Louie Nunn, who died in 2004 at the age of 79, accused his son of physically and mentally abusing him.

“I am too old and disabled to fight with you physically, even if I desired to do so,” Louie Nunn wrote in his letter. “The mental anguish with you physically attacking me is more than I need. I do not want it on my conscience or my record of having to hurt my own son — physically or mentality (sic).

“Therefore, I respectfully request you never attack me physically again. Neither do I intend to take anymore verbal abuse from you.”

He threatened his son with criminal charges if he assaulted him again and added that “this will necessitate my bringing into court your sister, your children and your former wife, all of whom you have abused.”

Jennie Lou Penn, Steve Nunn’s sister, declined to comment when asked about the letter Thursday.

Astrida Lemkins, Steve Nunn’s lawyer, said she hadn’t seen the letter and couldn’t comment without first talking to her client.

The letter is the most dramatic evidence to date of the strained relationship between Louie and Steve Nunn, who reconciled just a few years before the former governor died.

“They were both really strong-willed individuals,” said Walter Baker, a Glasgow Republican who served in the state Senate and on the Kentucky Supreme Court. “Gov. Nunn knew what he wanted people to do and usually knew how to get them to do it. With Steve, I suspect he was unable to succeed in that.”

The two reconciled before Steve Nunn launched an unsuccessful bid for the 2003 Republican nomination for governor.

In an interview during that campaign, Steve Nunn said he angered his father by leaving as manager of the family farm in 1987 and divorcing his first wife, Martha Lu, in 1992.

“Then my mother became ill, and that was another setback for both of us,” he said.

London attorney Warren Scoville, a longtime leader in the state Republican Party who knew both Nunns well, said in an interview that when his parents “had their problems, Steve was mad at his father because his mother was dying of cancer. And that's when they fell out.”

Louie Nunn opposed his wife's request for the divorce, which was granted but later set aside by a judge at Nunn’s request. He filed the letter as proof that he was trying to get his son to move out of the family home so that he could move back in, according to another document filed in the divorce case.

Louie Nunn's lawyer at the time, Joe Lane Travis, said Nunn even spoke to then-Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Patton about pressing charges against his son.

Patton, who is now the Barren County circuit judge, said Thursday that he recalls talking with Louie Nunn about an incident in the kitchen at the family farm near Horse Cave.

He said they met for lunch at Barren River Lake State Resort Park and that the father’s complaints involved “pushing and shoving” and “ugly” language that his son allegedly had used. He said the former governor was “very angry” with his son.

But Patton said he advised Louie Nunn that the case sounded like a misdemeanor, and Nunn decided not to pursue it. He added that Nunn became angry and said: “What, you mean you can talk to your parents like that and it's not a felony?”

Travis said he told Nunn that he shouldn't include the letter in the court filing because it wouldn't do anybody any good. But Nunn insisted, he said.

In the letter, the former governor said he and his wife “were getting along very well” until his son moved back home after his divorce. “I expect to return to our home by noon, Thursday, September 15, 1994. I want you out by that time. This gives you adequate time to find a place.”

Louie Nunn said he wanted little contact with his son. He wrote that, once he moved back into the family's home, his son should phone two hours in advance if he planned to visit his mother, giving the former governor time to leave.

Yet he offered the home for his son to use when he had visitation rights with his children — as long as he had adequate notice so he could move out for the duration of the visit.

Travis said Louie Nunn had moved out of the main home at the family farm, Warrior's Trail, and into a smaller house on the property because of the problems with his son.

In the letter, Louie Nunn told his son that he loved him but then proceeded to lay out a list of grievances against him.

“I cannot accept some of your conduct and lifestyle,” he wrote.

The letter alleged that on one occasion Steve Nunn's children had to pull their father off of the former governor. It warned about the ramifications of any future attack.

“I am not threatening you but you need to fully understand my only alternative and my firm intentions if you force conditions upon me by again resorting to physical and/or verbal attacks. The decision as what my conduct will be rest (sic) solely with you,” he wrote. “I hope it will not be necessary to expose publically (sic) your past conduct.

“If you do, I intend to seek a criminal warrant for assault and battery, a peace bond, and a restraining order and eviction. This will necessitate my bringing into court your sister, your children and your former wife, all of whom you have abused.”

“I do not want to harm you or damage your future. I pray for the best for you but I will not be physically hurt again and the emotional hurt cannot get any worse,” the letter continued. “Don't you ever again in my presence, or let me hear of you abusing your children, your sister, your mother, me or any member of my family.”

He then urged Steve Nunn to take the letter and “destroy it upon reading because I would not want anyone else to know I had been physically hurt and abused by you.”

He signed the letter, “With love, hurt and deep saddeness (sic) thru tears, Your Father.”

When police searched Steve Nunn's house Sept. 11, one of the things they took was a letter to him from his father. Documents filed in Barren Circuit Court don't say if it was the same letter as the one in the divorce file.

After his divorce, Steve Nunn married Tracey Damron in 1997, about two years after Beula Nunn died. Damron said in an interview this week that the breach between father and son remained deep.

For years, she said, “Steve hadn't spent a Thanksgiving or Christmas with his dad.”

As the 1999 gubernatorial election approached, both Steve and Louie Nunn considered entering the race. But Steve Nunn told The Courier-Journal that he would not run because he expected his father would.

“He's like an Old West gunfighter who wants to go out in a blaze of glory, with six-guns blazing,” Steve said of his father, then 74.

Asked if he would support his father if he ran, Nunn said, “He's my dad. I wish him the best in whatever he undertakes.” He paused and said, “I sure miss my mom.”

Louie Nunn did not run for governor that year. And father and son reunited before Steve Nunn launched his race for governor four years later, Damron said.

“For whatever reasons, something opened in Gov. Nunn, a softness, let me say. And in Steve. It was like a prayer answered,” she said.

In the months before the 2003 primary Steve Nunn considered running for lieutenant governor on a ticket headed by Rebecca Jackson, then the Jefferson County judge-executive. But Scoville said Louie Nunn argued to his son that he should head his own ticket.

Steve Nunn finished third in the 2003 Republican primary, with just 13.4 percent of the vote, behind the winner, Ernie Fletcher, who had the backing of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, and Jackson.

Through the disappointment, father and son remained close, Damron said.

She recalled the fun they had working together to plan and hold a 2003 Christmas party at Louie Nunn's home. The following month, the former governor died.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702. Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.

Editor's comment: Oh, SH^T! WOW!!

Update 9/22: to read Louie Nunn's letter and divorce pleading, go here.