Misconduct or justified? See footage for 3 LMPD cases where officers won't be punished

A Louisville Metro Police officer sicced a dog on a 14-year-old Black child who was on the ground.

Another beat an inebriated woman with a flashlight after she bit his shoe.

And others threw a drunk man to the ground and Tasered him soon after confronting him about not paying a $38 bar bill.

These three incidents are among those cited in March by the U.S. Department of Justice in its critical report about LMPD misconduct.

These incidents are also among more than 30 from the report that LMPD reviewed for months before determining last week that no formal investigations or potential discipline were warranted.

Along with the announcement, LMPD released about 50 hours of body cam footage from the incidents mentioned by the DOJ. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said this was done "so the public can fully understand the circumstances of each incident referenced in the Department of Justice report."

With that in mind, The Courier Journal took at closer look at video of some of the incidents where LMPD determined no potential disciplinary investigation was warranted:

Dog attacks 14-year-old

On the evening of Jan. 22, 2019, officers were dispatched to a West End boarding house where a woman reported three Black men in their 30s or late 20s wearing all black robbed her at gunpoint.

As more officers en route to the scene were driving down an alley, they saw multiple Black males flee from a red Chevrolet.

Later, in reports documenting the use of force, officers would write that the vehicle's occupants, “matched the description” of the home invasion suspects, despite one officer on body camera later describing them as "all really young."

Officer Jeremiah Nimmo and his police dog, Hondo, arrived in the alley and began searching for suspects.

“Metro Police with a canine!” Nimmo yelled as he walked in the alley. “Surrender now. If my dog finds you, he will bite you!”

Later, Nimmo and other officers came across a Black teenager wearing red pants and a gray sweatshirt, lying on the ground in foliage next to a home. Officers shined flashlights on him, but did not issue verbal commands for him to surrender. The teen stayed still as Nimmo released the dog and gave it an attack command.

By the time Nimmo approached the teen, the dog was thrashing with the boy’s left arm in its mouth, and the teen was begging for help. Nimmo told the teen the dog would not stop biting him until he put his hands behinds his back.

“Suspect, stop fighting my dog,” Nimmo said at one point as the teen continued to beg for them to pull the dog off him.

Nimmo issued a release command to the dog more than 30 seconds after it began biting the teen.

In its report, the DOJ determined the 14-year-old could not comply with Nimmo's commands because the dog had control of his arm. The DOJ used the case as an example of times when officers should not have ordered dogs to attack.

According to the DOJ, the boy went to the hospital with "serious injuries."

Supervisors reviewing the incident in 2019 found the use of force was within LMPD policy.

In June, the mayor's office told The Courier Journal that Nimmo was still on the force.

Officer beats inebriated woman

On the evening April 29, 2020, LMPD officers were dispatched on a “trouble run” regarding an intoxicated woman in Valley Station.

Arriving on scene, a group of people told Officer Thomas Stettenbenz how a woman drinking with them had gotten very drunk, tried to fight them and was on a lawn causing a disturbance.

Getting out of his car, Stettenbenz saw a woman doubled over on the grass, crying hysterically. In the body cam video, she appears severely inebriated and does not react to the presence of police or an officer shining a flashlight on her and saying her name. At points, she tries to stand up and falls down.

After she began tussling with one of the women on scene for a second time, Stettenbenz approached as she fell to the ground. He then put his boot high up on her chest, near her throat, pinning her.

“I’ve had enough of you,” Stettenbenz told her as she cried. “OK? Do you understand?”

She acknowledged she understood, then attempted to bite his boot.

Stettenbenz started hitting her with his flashlight while shouting: “Bite me again! Bite me again!”

With the body camera shaking, it is difficult to see how many times she was hit.

“Then she bites my ankle. And then I just beat the s--- out of her,” Stettenbenz explained to an unidentified LMPD officer later.

He added: “I don’t know how many times I hit her, you’ll have to count on camera. Probably four or five. I don’t know.”

He also explained the incident to the people who called police.

“She yanked the wrong dog’s chain,” he told them. “She had her mouth on my leg. She didn’t clamp down because I punched her right in the face.”

An LMPD use-of-force report said the woman “complied with a smile on her face and then bit his ankle, causing a great deal of pain.” It also noted Stettenbenz missed two shifts after injuring his hand while hitting her.

Reviewing the incident, Maj. Micah Scheu wrote: “Use of force was appropriate in response to the force used against him by the subject.”

As of June, Stettenbenz remained on the force.

Man Tasered after refusal to pay bill

In an August 2016 incident, LMPD officers responded to an Old Louisville bar after an inebriated man refused to pay his $38 bar tab.

After approaching the man, who was sitting on a barstool, Officer Amy Tanner asked if he had money to pay his bill.

“I have ATM cards at home,” he said.

“Home doesn’t do any good. Get out your money that you just said you had and pay your bill,” Tanner said.

After the man then asked, “where’s the ATM machine?” Tanner ordered officer Austen Allen to put handcuffs on the man. By that point, the pair of officers were in contact with the man for just over one minute.

Arguing “I’ve done no crime,” he was brought to his feet by Allen, but can be seen resisting putting his hands behind his back.

When Allen was unable to handcuff the man after trying for about 15 seconds, Tanner pulled out a Taser and aimed it at the man’s chest.

“Look at this, sir. I’m going to light you up if you don’t put your hands behind your back right now and do as the officer says,” she said. “Put your hands behind your back, or I’m going to light you up.”

At one point, the man breaks free and sits on a barstool again, telling the officers to call his lawyer.

Allen then threw the man to the ground before Tanner began using her Taser on him repeatedly as he screamed in pain.

According to the DOJ, the man was also put into a chokehold, a move allowed only when deadly force is authorized. However, this move cannot be clearly seen in footage released by LMPD.

While Tanner and Allen both submitted body camera recordings according to a use-of-force report, LMPD released only Tanner’s footage. A third officer, who can be seen trying to help restrain the man and hold him down, is not identified in the use-of-force report.

The DOJ used the incident to highlight LMPD’s “unreasonable and unsafe” use of Tasers, including against people who are already restrained.

Later, after the man was arrested, Tanner told an LMPD colleague: “If you’ve got to go to an ATM, then you’re going to jail. You don’t come in here and then need to go to an ATM.”

In June, the mayor's office told The Courier Journal that Tanner had retired and Allen remained on the force.

'All of them felt fairly egregious'

Louisville Urban League CEO Lyndon Pryor found the lack of further discipline or investigations troubling.

“So, she’s saying that an officer who allowed his dog to continue to bite a 14-year-old boy, who was not resisting arrest, is not going to be disciplined?” Pryor asked on Aug. 10 after The Courier Journal told him LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel had determined no discipline or investigations were warranted in the DOJ report incidents not previously examined.

“If there is an officer who is still employed by LMPD who they are saying will not be disciplined for their actions in one of those incidents, that is a problem. That is a problem for the Louisville Urban League,” he added. “Significant. Because that does not speak to accountability, transparency, change — any of that. Because again, I can’t remember any of the [DOJ-cited incidents] being mild. All of them felt fairly egregious, if not significantly so.”

A spokesperson for Louisville’s mayor did not respond to a question about whether Greenberg had watched body cam videos of incidents that LMPD said did not warrant further investigation or discipline.

Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD releases body cam footage for officer misconduct cases