Louisville police warrants will now be assigned to random judges after scathing DOJ report
Ending the practice of Louisville Metro Police officers cherry-picking judges to sign search warrants, Jefferson Circuit Court judges have adopted a practice in which they will be randomly selected to review the requests.
Under the policy, which the judges approved in a vote, law enforcement officers must now take applications for warrants to the Jefferson Court Administrator, which will select the judge.
Chief Judge Mitch Perry informed interim police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel of the new practice in a March 17 letter, a copy of which was provided to The Courier Journal. The policy had gone into effect a day earlier.
The letter said an on-call judge will still be available to review District Court cases.
More headlines:Former University of Louisville interim president to take over leading role at Ohio
From Thursday:Group urges James Comer investigation over remarks about 2015 email leak
The move comes about two weeks after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Louisville Metro and LMPD was released that scrutinized the process by which the police department's warrants were approved.
Six local judges approved more than half of warrant applications the DOJ reviewed as part of its investigation, the report said, despite a "rotating schedule for judges to review warrant applications" put in place by Jefferson County. Officers "rarely" sought approval from 19 of the 30 judges who approved warrants in the sample, the report added.
The report, a review of the department from 2016 through 2021, also found LMPD warrant applications frequently lacked enough details to establish probable cause for search and were often overly broad in scope. It also criticized "poor supervision and oversight" during the approval process.
Related:What to know about the 7 DOJ findings in Louisville police investigation
Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine said the move will ensure "not only transparency, but that the workload is distributed evenly."
“In addition to tracking which judge approves a warrant, I also hope the process will track when a judge rejects the request and what judges are available to review the warrants," Wine said.
For subscribers:Prospect woman sues PNC, claims bank says it has no record of her $79K in CDs
Reporters Lucas Aulbach and Billy Kobin contributed. Reach Andrew Wolfson at awolfson@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville police warrants to be reviewed by randomly chosen judges
