Louisville paid at least $29M to settle claims in 2023. Here's a look at notable cases
Over the course of 2023, Louisville Metro Government agreed to pay out at least $29 million to settle claims made against city government, documents obtained by The Courier Journal show.
The vast majority of that sum — almost $28 million — came from claims against the city's police force and jail.
And much of that total came from a $20.5 million settlement paid to settle a federal lawsuit suit from Jeffrey Clark and Keith Hardin, two men who spent more than two decades behind bars for the murder of a 19-year-old Louisville woman only to see their convictions overturned.
While those men were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1995, a Meade County judge released them on bond in 2016 after DNA evidence called the conviction into question and the judge determined there was no credible evidence the murder was tied to Satanic worship, a key detail pushed by police and prosecutors decades earlier.
The case was thrown out in 2018.
The settlement in that case was among dozens The Courier Journal obtained from the Jefferson County Attorney's Office in mid-December under Kentucky's open records law.
Here’s a look at some other notable cases that contributed to the more than $29 million the city agreed to pay out in 2023:
The jail death of Stephanie Dunbar
In September, city government agreed to pay out $1.25 million to settle a suit from the son of Stephanie Dunbar, a homeless Black woman who killed herself at Louisville’s jail in December 2021 after being confined to an “attorney booth” that lacked a toilet, bed or running water for the last 18 hours of her life.
An internal breach of policy investigation conducted by the jail found that she was not regularly checked on by guards and that two Louisville Metro Department of Corrections officers forged “observation sheets” by claiming to be in one part of the jail when they were elsewhere.
One guard gave Dunbar the middle finger through the attorney booth’s window before she hanged herself.
The internal LMDC investigation concluded Dunbar may not have died had officers followed protocol and regularly checked on her.
The details of Dunbar’s death were first reported by LEO Weekly.
Dunbar was one of 12 people to die in the custody of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in the span of less than a year between November 2021 and October 2022.
Alleged sexual crimes by police officers
The city agreed to pay out more than $500,000 to settle allegations of sexual crimes brought forward against two LMPD officers by seven unnamed women.
More than $240,000 of that went to two women who said they were targeted and sexually extorted by Bryan Wilson, a former LMPD Ninth Mobile officer who used his access to powerful police technology to assist in a scheme to hack and steal sexually explicit images from women.
The Courier Journal previously reported the city paid $118,000 to settle a lawsuit brought forth by a local teacher against Wilson.
However, records obtained by The Courier Journal under Kentucky’s open records law show the city agreed to pay another $122,500 to settle claims brought forth by another unnamed woman. Those additional claims, it appears, were settled without a formal lawsuit brought against the city.
Wilson is currently serving a 30-month sentence for sextortion schemes, as well as his role in the drinks-throwing ‘Slushygate’ scandal.
Another $275,000 was to be paid to five women who brought forth lawsuits alleging sexual assault by former LMPD officer Pablo Cano.
Cano previously admitted to having sex with five women without their consent between November 2015 and February 2017 and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2019.
The 2018 traffic stop of Tae-Ahn Lea
In May, Louisville Metro Government agreed to pay $375,000 to settle claims made by Tae-Ahn Lea, who was pulled over, handcuffed and detained after police said he made a “wide turn” as an 18-year-old in 2018.
The traffic stop of the Black teen, which was captured on body camera video that would go viral online, stoked distrust in the police department and highlighted LMPD’s use of pretextual stops in mostly Black neighborhoods as an excuse to search cars for drugs and guns.
The stop was carried out by LMPD’s now-disbanded Ninth Mobile unit, which prioritized such pretextual stops and later became known for ‘Slushygate,’ the scandal in which Ninth Mobile officers would throw drinks at pedestrians from unmarked cars.
In a lawsuit over the stop, Lea’s lawyers wrote Ninth Mobile had been given “carte blanche to target Black males” in the city.
In 2022, a judge ruled Lea’s constitutional rights were violated in the stop.
The killing of David McAtee
Another $725,000 went to settle a suit over the killing of David McAtee, the West End barbecue chef who was killed on June 1, 2020, as LMPD officers and members of the Kentucky National Guard deployed to 26th and Broadway to enforce a curfew amid racial justice protests stemming from Breonna Taylor's killing by Louisville police.
As police fired pepper balls to disperse people outside of McAtee’s restaurant, a crowd rushed in through McAtee’s kitchen door. He then stepped into the doorway and twice fired his handgun with his arm raised in the air. Police and National Guards troops returned fire.
It was later determined a bullet fired by a National Guard soldier killed McAtee.
McAtee’s killing intensified protests in Louisville and came under immediate criticism as police were deployed to enforce a curfew in a mostly Black neighborhood far from where protests were occurring downtown.
Former LMPD Chief Erika Shields, who arrived in Louisville after McAtee’s killing, would later say what happened to him would not have happened in the mostly white East End of Louisville.
LMPD officer Katie Crews, who fired pepper balls at people outside McAtee’s restaurant, was fired from the force and was later federally charged with using unreasonable force in the incident. In January 2023, she was sentenced to two years probation, 200 hours of community service and agreed to not seek future employment in law enforcement.
Another exonerated man
Percy Brown, a Black man who spent more than seven years incarcerated while awaiting trial in a case that was ultimately dropped, sued Metro Government in 2016 alleging LMPD detectives manufactured a case against him, framing him for a 2004 murder.
In July, city government agreed to pay Brown $350,000.
LMPD automobile accidents
Automobile accidents blamed on LMPD officers resulted in more than $1.5 million in settlements.
In one, Metro Government agreed to pay $750,000 to a man who sued the city alleging an LMPD officer crashed into his car because of their own negligence, causing injuries “both of a temporary and permanent nature.”
In another, city government agreed to pay $775,000 to settle a seven-year-old suit over a 2012 LMPD chase that ended with a 14-year-old driver crashing on I-265, resulting in “serious” injuries, according to court documents.
Additional LMPD automobile accident suits were settled for four and five digits.
Allegations of racial discrimination in Parks department
Over the course of 2023, Metro Government agreed to pay out $620,000 to settle two lawsuits alleging a Metro Parks supervisor engaged in racial discrimination and retaliation.
In one lawsuit, Vincent Watkins, a Black Metro Parks worker, alleged a supervisor "persistently disparaged" him and harassed other Black Metro Parks employees, as well. The lawsuit alleged the supervisor disciplined Watkins without reason and ultimately terminated him "because of his race."
Additionally, Watkins' lawsuit alleged a separate, unnamed Parks Department supervisor "is a proud confederate sympathizer and even hangs a confederate flag on his front door."
In a second lawsuit, Watkins' direct supervisor Mahlon Morton alleged the supervisor Watkins was suing "disciplined Black people differently, and worse, than white counterparts."
Mahlon alleged he was terminated "in retaliation for his refusal to partake in the discrimination of Vincent Watkins and/or his voicing his objections to Defendant's racial discrimination of Watkins."
In September, Metro Government agreed to pay $240,000 to settle Watkins' suit and another $380,000 to settle Morton's suit.
Overcharging on impounded cars
To resolve a class-action lawsuit over the city’s impound lot habitually overcharging people whose cars had been towed, Louisville Metro Government agreed to pay $1.5 million in May.
The lawsuit was filed in 2019, alleging Metro Government charged higher handling and holding fees at the tow lot than were permitted. The lawsuit claimed the overcharging may have affected thousands of people.
Until Metro Government was sued, the lawsuit said, they “apparently did not realize they had been overcharging individuals for more than a decade.”
The lawsuit listed former LMPD chiefs Steve Conrad and Erika Shields among the defendants. The tow lot is operated by LMPD.
Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville court settlements totaled $29 million in 2023
