Magistrate calls his past firing irrelevant

A Page County magistrate who was fired from a job five years ago for allegedly making sexual comments to a female subordinate could decide cases involving sexual harassment as part of his court duties.

Ronald Knight of Shenandoah began serving as magistrate Aug. 1. He was chosen for the position by a committee of local residents including District Judge J.C. Irvin, two attorneys and two laypeople.

In July 2004 he was fired as store manager at the Shenandoah Fareway grocery after company officials learned that he had made the comments to an employee, according to court documents.

After being discharged from his position at Fareway, Knight filed for and was awarded unemployment benefits from Iowa Workforce Development.

Fareway filed an appeal seeking to block the payments.

In a decision by an administrative law judge with Workforce Development’s unemployment insurance appeals section, details surrounding Knight’s firing became public record.

According to those court documents, Knight allegedly told the female employee that “he heard she was drunk and running naked through the streets the previous night.”

He also allegedly implied that her forgetfulness was due to lack of sex and later telephoned the woman at her home for business purposes and “asked her what she was wearing.”

Knight, who had been reprimanded and given a one-week suspension two years earlier after allegedly harassing a female employee, also by making inappropriate comments, was fired.

The unemployment judge ruled in favor of Fareway and ordered Knight to repay $1,681 in unemployment benefits he had received.

In a phone interview, Knight said the incident with his former employer would have no bearing on his role as magistrate.

“It’s not relevant anymore,” he said. “It happened five years ago, and it’s not relevant. It’s not relevant to me doing my job as a magistrate. It’s not relevant to what I’ve done between then and now. It has no relevancy, period.”

Last weekend the Des Moines Register published a story about a Cedar Falls man who had repeated a gag from the “Seinfeld” television show and subsequently was fired for sexual harassment.

In his research, Register reporter Clark Kauffman, who did not know Knight was now a magistrate, said he searched the state unemployment appeals database for the term “Seinfeld” and found the case involving Knight and Fareway.

During his appeals hearing, Knight told the judge he was just “repeating comments he heard on the television show ‘Seinfeld’ and said the comments in jest.”

Kent Wirth, court administrator for the 4th Judicial District, said the circumstances surrounding Knight’s termination from Fareway do not preclude him from being able to fulfill the duties of magistrate.

“He was appointed by a commission consisting of lawyers and citizens from Page County,” Wirth said. “They would have had ample opportunity to review his employment history and ask him any questions, and they elected to appoint him to the position.”

Knight said there was more to the story surrounding the allegations of sexual harassment, but he declined to go into further detail.

“I’m not going to rehash it because by me going into more detail basically draws more attention to it,” Knight said. “In my estimation, the case is closed. It should not even be rehashed. I don’t see how it should be able to be public knowledge.”

After making these and other comments, Knight said they were made off the record.

“I’m not going to say anything further; this is off the record, this whole conversation is off the record. I don’t want anything I’ve said here today printed,” Knight said. “It was way out of proportion back then, if you want to put it that way. It was way out of proportion and still is. That’s about the only thing I’m going to say.”

Shortly after leaving Fareway, Knight opened an eating establishment in Red Oak. He applied for the vacant magistrate position after Clarinda’s Wendell Leonard retired from the bench.

As one of two county magistrates, Knight presides over lower court cases two days a week, including small claims, initial appearances in criminal cases, simple misdemeanors, mental commitments, search warrants and arrest warrants. He earns $30,000 to $40,000 per year

As part of his duties, he could hear civil cases involving sexual harassment if the damages sought do not exceed $5,000.

Kevin Slater and Tess Gruber Nelson contributed to this report.