By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Attorneys for the Covington Diocese who got a subpoena in an Ohio court for a Kentucky judge's phone records could face sanctions in the Buckeye State.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel ordered on Friday that attorney Mark Guilfoyle of Crestview Hills and Carrie Huff of Chicago appear before him on Dec. 12. The attorneys are to show why they should not be held in contempt of court in connection with the issuance of the subpoena.

Guilfoyle and Huff claim they withdrew their Ohio subpoena the same day it was issued, and therefore the point is moot.

Nadel's order came one day after Boone Circuit Judge Jay Bamberger issued a similar order. Bamberger threatened to revoke his permission to allow Huff to participate in cases before him.

Bamberger wrote in his order that he was "astounded" that diocesan attorneys sought a subpoena in Ohio the same day he quashed one in Kentucky. The subpoenas were sought in both states because Cincinnati Bell is based in Ohio.

Diocesan attorneys claim both the Ohio and Kentucky subpoenas were quashed or withdrawn before any records were obtained.

The controversy, however, has pitted the Cincinnati trial attorney Stan Chesley, a pioneer in class-action litigation, against Guilfoyle, a prominent Northern Kentucky attorney, and Huff, an attorney with Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw.

Guilfoyle and Huff subpoenaed the phone records as part of their attempt to remove Bamberger from overseeing a class-action suit alleging a diocesan cover-up of sexual misconduct by its priests. Bamberger, the first judge in the nation to grant a priest sex abuse suit class-action status, has said attempts at removing him are nothing more than "forum shopping."

The diocesan attorneys have asked Kentucky's chief justice to intervene. They want Chief Justice Joseph Lambert to disqualify Bamberger and appoint a special judge to oversee the class action.

In their inch-thick motion to Lambert, diocesan attorneys wrote they were seeking Bamberger's phone records to bolster their claim the judge has had improper contact with a representative of Chesley's law firm and thus should be removed.

The representative is trial consultant Mark Modlin, who has been actively involved in the class-action suit.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com