NORTHERN KENTUCKY — What does a 2016 Campbell County District Court campaign have to do with a state Cabinet job, the former DAV property, Al. Neyer, campaign contributors involved in real estate and development, and a troubled former school building in Falmouth?
Maybe nothing.
But the public record now contains enough overlap that the questions should be asked — and the documents should answer them.
Start in 2016
In April 2016, attorney Abigail Voelker announced that she wanted to become a Campbell County District Court Judge, seeking the seat vacated by Judge Gregory Popovich.
Her own campaign described the position broadly: misdemeanors, felony preliminary hearings, juvenile matters, probate, guardianships, disability matters and small claims. Her campaign said her criminal and civil practice prepared her for that docket. �
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She did not win.
Officially reported results showed Cameron Blau winning with 12,245 votes, while Voelker received 8,920. �
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Then something significant changed in her professional path.
In her own 2022 campaign statement, Voelker said she closed her private practice in 2017 and joined the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, handling termination-of-parental-rights matters and advising social workers. Five years later, she sought an open Family Court seat and said she had intentionally prepared her career for that opportunity. �
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So the factual question is not whether somebody can guess why she changed directions.
It is:
What happened between the 2016 District Court campaign and the 2022 Family Court campaign — and what public matters passed through the agency where she worked during those years?
Then her brother’s DAV fight reached CHFS
While Abigail Voelker was working for CHFS, her brother, attorney Brandon Voelker, was representing the City of Cold Spring in one of Northern Kentucky’s most contentious public-property disputes.
The property was the former Disabled American Veterans headquarters on U.S. 27.
Campbell County Schools wanted it for a new middle school.
Cold Spring wanted it for development.
And private developer Al. Neyer was already involved.
Contemporary reporting shows Al. Neyer had been working on the site before the public fight erupted. In December 2020, the company said it had a binding agreement involving the DAV property and a proposed healthcare development. Cold Spring subsequently acquired the property with Al. Neyer positioned as developer. �
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Think about that structure for a moment.
A private developer had development rights.
A municipality acquired the property.
A public school district sought the same property through eminent domain.
And the municipal attorney litigating the dispute was Brandon Voelker.
The fight continued for years. Cold Spring ultimately prevailed at the Court of Appeals on the eminent-domain issue, and Al. Neyer remained attached to development of the property afterward. By 2024, the site was moving through zoning for an Al. Neyer mixed-use project. �
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But during that litigation, the dispute suddenly reached CHFS.
Why?
Because opposing school-board attorney Jason Reed also worked for CHFS.
Brandon Voelker complained that Reed had used state computer or email resources in connection with his outside representation of Campbell County Schools. LINK nky’s DAV chronology says CHFS conducted an internal investigation following that complaint. �
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That places two siblings on opposite sides of an institutional boundary:
Brandon Voelker — representing Cold Spring in the DAV litigation.
Abigail Voelker — employed as an attorney by the state agency asked to examine Brandon’s opposing counsel.
There is presently no document in this investigation establishing that Abigail Voelker participated in, influenced, supervised or accessed that investigation.
That is important.
But it creates very specific questions:
Who at CHFS received Brandon Voelker’s complaint?
Who assigned the investigation?
Who had access to Reed’s records?
Was Abigail Voelker screened from it?
Was a conflict memorandum created because the complainant was her brother?
If the answer is that she had absolutely nothing to do with it, where is the record documenting that separation?
That record would resolve a lot.
Now look at the 2022 campaign
While the DAV dispute remained active, Abigail Voelker ran for the open Campbell County Family Court seat in 2022. Judge Richard Woeste had announced that he would not seek reelection. �
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And that is where the campaign-finance records become useful — not because a contribution proves wrongdoing, but because contributors can identify relationships worth checking against public-property, municipal and legal records.
Our working KREF-derived campaign spreadsheet records, among other entries:
Brandon Voelker — $500 in the 2022 general-election cycle.
William Voelker — $706 across two gifts, with the precise relationship still flagged for confirmation from the original filing. �
Abigail_Voelker_2022_Campaign_Finance_Property_Crosswalk.xlsx
The property-development side becomes more interesting.
Our working KREF-derived records identify Michael Combs of Eagle Storage — $750. Campbell County planning records separately identify Combs with COPAC Warehouse Systems and show Cardinal Engineering’s Joe Kramer appearing for the applicant on the development project. �
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The same campaign research identifies:
Delbert Perry — $600, associated in the research with Perry Real Estate College.
Roger Keller — $500, associated with Keller Builders.
Greg Brockman — $300, with a separate municipal-law overlap involving Gatlin Voelker partner Jack Gatlin’s role as Dry Ridge city attorney.
Bobby Irvin — $500, flagged in the working research because of separate real-estate holdings.
Sherry Keller and Mickey Meyer — $500 each, both identified with the same employer, Mid Valley Fuel Service.
The working crosswalk totaled $3,450 among the specific property/business-screened contributors we had identified, but it expressly warns that this is not evidence of a coordinated developer bloc or quid pro quo. �
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That’s precisely how it should be presented.
Not:
“Look, these people donated, therefore something happened.”
Instead:
Why do these particular donors appear in the property and development records?
Which of them had matters before municipalities represented by Gatlin Voelker?
Which had zoning, development, construction or financing matters involving the same professionals?
Did any later have matters before Campbell Family Court?
And, most importantly:
What do the original KREF receipts and government records actually show?
The campaign spreadsheet itself still flags several entries as KREF-derived and says the original KREF filings should be obtained before stronger conclusions are drawn. �
Abigail_Voelker_2022_Campaign_Finance_Property_Crosswalk.xlsx
The storage connection deserves its own question
Michael Combs is useful because this isn’t merely “someone who happens to own a business.”
Our research connects the contribution to Eagle Storage/COPAC, then connects that project through official planning records to Cardinal Engineering.
And Cardinal Engineering appears elsewhere in the regional development ecosystem.
Our evidence file documents Cardinal working with Grand Communities/Fischer and separately working on the same A.J. Jolly public project on which Hermes Construction appeared.
But there is an important line we should not cross:
That does not establish that Eagle Storage, Al. Neyer, Hermes, Fischer, Victory Mortgage, Homestead Title or the Voelkers were part of one coordinated enterprise.
Our own evidence booklet explicitly says those larger conspiracy-type conclusions are not presently supported. What is supported is a series of professional and project intersections worth tracing transaction by transaction. �
Abigail_Campaign_Cardinal_Victory_Property_Network_Evidence_Booklet_2026-08-30.docx
So ask:
Who hired Cardinal on each project?
Who financed each project?
Which title companies closed them?
Which municipal attorneys reviewed them?
Which campaign contributors appear independently in those records?
That is a records investigation, not an accusation.
Then the same municipal lawyer appears in Falmouth
Now move south to 500 Chapel Street, the former Falmouth School Center.
The earlier school transaction involved New Foundations and ultimately resulted in Highland Hills Holdings taking title.
The proposed housing redevelopment failed.
Then came the multimillion-dollar Verti-Grow proposal.
That failed too.
Then in 2023, the City of Falmouth bought the property for approximately $60,000. Public reporting from the Falmouth matter confirms that acquisition and subsequent public spending on the building. �
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And on the City’s side?
Brandon Voelker was Falmouth’s city attorney.
Contemporary Falmouth reporting still identified him as city attorney into 2025. �
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So this is no longer a hypothetical question about whether his firm represented the City during the Chapel period.
It did.
Now the questions become narrower:
What legal review did the City receive before buying 500 Chapel?
Did counsel review the original school-board agreement?
Did counsel review New Foundations’ rights and the assignment to Highland Hills?
Why did City discussions reference other entities while Highland Hills was the deed grantor?
Was a title examination performed?
Were surviving contractual obligations identified?
Who advised council that the City could safely acquire the property?
What written legal work exists?
And after the acquisition:
What did taxpayers spend?
Who authorized it?
What did the City ultimately own and what condition was it in?
Two properties. Same kind of question.
The DAV property and Chapel Street are not the same transaction.
Al. Neyer is not Eagle Storage.
Eagle Storage is not New Foundations.
A campaign donation is not proof of influence.
And an attorney representing multiple municipalities is not evidence of wrongdoing.
But look at the questions the records produce.
At the DAV property:
A private developer had the development position.
A city acquired the property.
A school district fought for it.
Brandon Voelker represented the city.
The litigation reached CHFS through a complaint about opposing counsel.
Abigail Voelker worked at CHFS.
Then she ran for judge.
At Chapel:
A nonprofit entered the original school transaction.
Another entity received title.
A multimillion-dollar private development was proposed.
That failed.
A city represented by Brandon Voelker later bought the property.
Public money was spent.
And major pieces of the acquisition and title history have required repeated records requests to reconstruct.
Then add the campaign-finance records.
The question isn’t whether one can draw a dramatic line through every name.
The question is:
Why are so many lines even available to draw?
And when those lines involve public money, public property, judicial campaigns, municipal lawyers and state agencies, why shouldn’t the public be able to inspect the underlying records?
Let the documents answer
There may be ordinary explanations for every one of these overlaps.
If so, the records should establish them.
Produce the CHFS screening and assignment records.
Produce the original campaign-finance filings.
Produce the DAV agreements with Al. Neyer.
Produce the Chapel title review and acquisition file.
Produce the legal invoices and engagement records.
Produce the contracts, closing documents and public-money reconciliation.
Then nobody has to speculate.
Who knew what?
Who represented whom?
Who paid whom?
Who owned what?
Who reviewed the transactions?
Who contributed to the campaign?
And when public authority changed the value, ownership or future of these properties, who benefited — and what documents demonstrate that the process was handled properly?
Those are questions the public record can answer.
Follow the property. Follow the contracts. Follow the campaign filings. Follow the lawyers. Follow the public money.
Then let readers decide what the record means.
Media Contact:
Howard Froelicher
Northern Kentucky
