By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Attorney General Greg Stumbo, who is suing a woman with whom he fathered a child, should press the case where she lives, not on his home turf, the Kentucky Supreme Court was told Friday.

The justices have to decide whether Stumbo's harassment suit against Travis Fritsch should have been filed in Fayette County, where Fritsch sued for nonsupport, rather than in Floyd County, where Stumbo lives.

Floyd County "has no more to do with this litigation than the price of prunes in Russia," Fritsch's current attorney, Eldred "Bud" Adams of Louisa, told the Supreme Court.

Stumbo's attorney, Earl M. "Mickey" McGuire of Prestonsburg, said Stumbo had a right to sue in Floyd County because Fritsch allegedly tried to damage his political career in the county by demanding money for their son, now 16.

"We think the case in Fayette County is about child support," McGuire said. "We think the case in Floyd County is about extortion."

Stumbo represented Floyd County in the Kentucky House from 1980 through 2003, when he was elected attorney general.

Fritsch and her original attorney, Ed Henry of Lexington, are seeking a "writ of prohibition" to prevent action on Stumbo's suit in Floyd County Circuit Court. They lost at the state Court of Appeals.

Fritsch hired Henry to negotiate an agreement with Stumbo over which court would decide the case. Adams said both sides agreed in August 2001 to keep jurisdiction over everything except the paternity charge in Fayette County Circuit Court. Paternity is a district court issue.

Stumbo and Fritsch, friends since college, had an affair in 1987. Fritsch gave birth to a son in 1988. Over the years, Stumbo gave money periodically, but Fritsch eventually pressed for regular payments and is now suing for $43,000 in back payments.

Stumbo said he has made support payments since 2002, when a DNA test confirmed he was the father.

It was not known when the justices would make a ruling. Six justices heard the case. The remaining justice, Janet Stumbo of Prestonsburg, disqualified herself because of longtime friendships with both Fritsch and Greg Stumbo, to whom she is distantly related.