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Once again, we are dealing with criminal gangs. More than that, this was a police network of child molesters and showcases the absurdity of cops investigating themselves.
As if the cops sexually abusing young prospects was not enough, now the police department is violating the law and withholding the records.
Years of scandals, investigations, and lawsuits bruise police morale in LouisvilleTwo former police officers in Louisville, Ky., are in prison. The mentorship program they used to sexually pursue minors is no longer operating. Months after their guilty pleas, though, the city’s residents still wait for an honest accounting of the department’s investigation into the officers’ crimes.
The Louisville Metro Police Department initially denied a request for records by the Courier-Journal. Now, the department may be mandated to turn over thousands of documents related to the internal investigation after the state’s attorney general ruled that their denial violated state law.The records pertain to two former officers, Kenneth Betts and Brandon Wood, who stand accused of using their positions as mentors in the department’s Youth Explorer program to sexually pursue, exploit and abuse teenage participants.
Betts, 35, was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison on charges of enticement of a minor and child pornography, both of which involved children he had been entrusted to mentor. Wood, 33, is serving five years for sexually abusing a teen he met in the program. Both are central to the scandal that grew to be about much more than just two officers.In the lawsuits, several other LMPD officers are accused of acting negligently when informed of sexual impropriety by officers like Betts and Wood in the Youth Explorer program.
Retired Maj. Curtis Flaherty has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct in the program. He is named in each of the seven lawsuits explicitly.
Flaherty started the Youth Explorer program in Louisville, and mentored Betts when he was a cadet.
Thomas said the trio of Flaherty, Betts and Wood perpetuated a cycle of mock accountability that allowed the abuse to flourish for years. According to Thomas, Betts’ victims would report their abuse to Wood, who would take their concerns to Flaherty, where they would be dead on arrival. The same thing allegedly happened in reverse, with Wood’s victims going to Betts.
Flaherty held dual roles within the department. He ran the Explorer program while overseeing LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit – the department responsible for internal investigations. Louisville Metro Council President David James, himself a former police officer, said Flaherty’s positions in the department were a clear conflict of interest.
“So, the case went under investigation,” James said. “During the investigation, the chief allowed officer Betts to resign from the police department. And once that resignation took place, he closed the investigation.”
Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad closed the case by exception, which means the department declined to pursue charges after the officer resigned. Betts resigned in 2014 without any sexual misconduct marks on his record, and went on to work as a code enforcement officer at a nearby police department from 2015 to 2017.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/years-of-scandals-investigations-and-lawsuits-bruise-police-morale-in-louisville