by , @morganwatkins26 –

The ex-chairman of the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees said in court Wednesday that he skipped a recent meeting because he was concerned state troopers would try to remove him.

Thomas Elliott, who served as chairman of the pension board until Gov. Matt Bevin replaced him earlier this year, said Wednesday that he didn’t attend last month’s pension board meeting due to a “dynamic” of fear.

Elliott and another trustee have sued Bevin for removing him from his position as chairman. That case, which also challenges other changes Bevin has made to the KRS board, is ongoing.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued an order in August that allowed Elliott to temporarily rejoin the board. But Shepherd was concerned when he found out Elliott didn’t attend a trustee meeting or an investment committee meeting held shortly after his ruling came out.

Shepherd expressed a willingness to reconsider his prior order, and on Wednesday the Bevin administration asked him to do just that. The governor’s general counsel, Steve Pitt, advocated for keeping Elliott off the board until the case is decided.

Elliott testified in court Wednesday afternoon, during which he explained his recent absences.

Elliott said he missed the investment committee meeting, which occurred the day after Shepherd decided to temporarily put him back on the board, because he had a work-related appointment that he wasn’t able to adjust quickly.

As for the board of trustees’ meeting, which was held two days after Shepherd’s judicial order, Elliott said he did intend to attend. When he learned the Bevin administration might be filing an appeal over Shepherd’s decision, however, Elliott said he was concerned the Kentucky State Police would try to remove him from the boardroom if he showed up.

Elliott said Bevin administration officials previously threatened that the state police would arrest him back in May if he tried to participate in a meeting that occurred after the governor removed him from the pension board.

“Honestly, it was just an issue of fear,” he said of his absence at last month’s trustee meeting.

Pitt pointed out that Elliott knew he had been reinstated on the board and hadn’t heard about any change in that status when he decided not to meet with the other trustees.

Elliott said he plans to attend the next trustee meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday morning. Shepherd said he didn’t know if he’d have a ruling ready by then on whether Elliott can keep serving on the board for the time being. If he doesn’t, he said he expects his current judicial order to be honored.

Attorney General Andy Beshear has intervened in the lawsuit Elliott has filed. The situation involving the KRS board came up at a news conference Wednesday, during which Beshear announced his intention to intervene in a lawsuit the University of Kentucky has filed against its student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, over an open records dispute.

A reporter at the news conference asked Beshear about the departure of former Assistant Attorney General Amye Bensenhaver, who recently retired after she was reprimanded for speaking to a journalist without permission.

Bensenhaver has said she was voicing disagreement with the Attorney General’s Office’s opinions more frequently, including an opinion in which Beshear determined the state’s open meetings law was violated when officials from Bevin’s administration and the Kentucky State Police confronted Elliott at the pension board meeting in May and pressured him not to participate.

Beshear said Wednesday that his office appreciates Bensenhaver’s years of service. However, he said he strongly disagrees with suggestions that any decision his office has made regarding Kentucky’s open records and open meetings laws were political. He invited people to read the opinions they’ve issued and defended his office’s KRS ruling.

Reporter Morgan Watkins can be reached at 502-875-5136 or [email protected].