Jefferson sheriff forced to fire deputy convicted of sexual misconduct with 15-year-old

Twenty-six years after police officer Todd Walls was charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl, he has finally been drummed out of law enforcement.

The Courier Journal reported in 2020 that Jefferson County Sheriff John Aubrey hired Walls as a court security deputy despite knowing he had pleaded guilty in 1996 to sexual misconduct, a misdemeanor.

“"He decided to go ahead and give him a chance," spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Yates said at the time. "It wasn't made without due regard for information and (a) thoughtful … investigative process."

Yates also said last month that because Walls’ record was expunged, legal counsel told the sheriff’s office “that means it never happened.”

But the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council told Aubrey in an Aug. 30 letter that the expungements wiping Walls’ record clean should never have happened because state law doesn’t allow expungements of misdemeanors involving children or sex offenses.

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John Moberly, the council’s executive director, told Aubrey he had to remove Walls from a “certified peace officer position,” and on Sept. 1, the sheriff fired him.

Walls’ attorney, Thomas Clay, said he has appealed. Walls did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nobody can serve as a law enforcement officer in Kentucky unless they are certified.

Walls was 28 and an officer on the old Louisville Police Department in 1996 when he was arrested and charged with rape and sodomy of a ninth-grader.

He had sexual contact with the girl for nine months, according to a Courier Journal story at the time.

He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of sexual misconduct and was sentenced by a circuit judge to two years of probation and fined $65.

According to a Crimes Against Children Unit file provided to The Courier Journal, after the girl’s mother complained about Walls to police, detectives recorded a call between the girl and the officer, with her permission.

Walls discussed their sexual encounters, according to a transcript of the call.

"Was I good in bed for a 15-year-old," the girl asked, according to a transcript of the phone. "Heck Yeah," Walls responded.

The girl told police that Walls had sex with her in his truck and at his residence.

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The details of the file were first reported last month by WDRB, which also said it found the victim, who is now an adult. She said she regretted going along with Walls’ plea bargain.

"I feel like my silence has allowed (Walls) to feel entitled to keep a position in law enforcement," the station quoted her saying. "I want to make the record very clear: He raped me. He took advantage of me. He committed a crime against a child."

Walls resigned from Louisville police but later worked at the Taylorsville Police Department and as the chief of police for the West Buechel Police Department before he was fired from both, The Courier Journal reported.

Yates told WDRB in August that Walls has “done an excellent job with us …No problems.”

Yates also said it was unclear whether Walls’ expungement outweighed a new law enacted by the General Assembly this year prohibiting the certification of any officer with a misdemeanor sex conviction.

But the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council said the law overrides an expungement, which should not have been granted in Walls case anyway.

Yates did not immediately respond to questions about whether Aubrey, who is seeking re-election, should have hired Walls or if the department’s review in 2020 was inadequate.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Sheriff forced to fire deputy convicted of sexual misconduct with teen