More questions about handling concerns about former Frankfort detective

FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — One of the people who clashed with the former Frankfort police detective at the center of a recent federal lawsuit says he received an answer last week about the status of a complaint he allegedly filed last summer.

Former detective Guss Curtis was sued in May by a woman who claimed he entered her home without a warrant while applying for welfare last summer.

A few weeks after the incident in 2023, he resigned from his job with the Frankfort Police Department and transferred to the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office, where he was fired after a few months.

Two weeks before the incident that led to the lawsuit, Curtis allegedly asked Nicholasville police to go to a man’s home to assist with a “criminal investigation,” but it turned out to be a personal matter involving collecting money from the man.

In the body camera footage, Curtis can be seen using the speakerphone to demand that the man give the Nicholasville officer the $525 he owes. Curtis can be heard threatening to obtain a warrant for his arrest if the man does not pay the money immediately or by 5 p.m. the next day.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he filed a report of the incident with Frankfort police at the time, but when he went back to police last month after LEX 18’s report, he was told they had no record of the report.

He showed LEX 18 a letter he allegedly received last week from the chief of the Frankfort Police Department.

The letter stated that the chief’s office never received a formal complaint form regarding the incident last summer and that the captain never received a further inquiry regarding the conversation and the man’s concerns.

In Curtis’s file in Frankfort, there is a 2023 email from the captain to Nicholasville police requesting more information about the incident, but there is no indication of any further investigation.

The man had previously told LEX 18 that after he filed his complaint last summer, the captain investigating the incident told him that nothing could be done because both he and Curtis were at fault.

The chief’s letter last week further stated that the department could not take any action regarding last summer’s incident because Curtis was no longer employed by the department.

City response

When LEX 18 tried to ask the Frankfort police chief about the Nicholasville incident and the other allegations against Curtis, he said to ask the city administration.

So over a week ago, LEX 18 went to Frankfort City Hall to talk to city leaders about why they weren’t informed about the reported problems with Curtis and whether Frankfort police should have shared information about him with the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council.

The city referred LEX 18 to an attorney representing it in the lawsuit filed by a woman against Curtis and the city, alleging that Curtis entered her home without a warrant.

“The City and Frankfort Police Department take great care to comply with all mandatory reporting requirements, including but not limited to those issued by KLEC,” attorney Carol Schureck Petitt said in a statement. “Specifically with respect to former Officer Curtis, there were no outstanding ‘issues’ that would have required reporting to KLEC at the time Curtis voluntarily resigned from his employment with the Frankfort Police Department.”

Felony charges dismissed in 2022

A year before last summer’s incidents, a Frankfort woman said she had an incident with Curtis.

Natalee Cleveland says Curtis charged her and her sister with aggravated assault following a fight at a Frankfort restaurant in 2022.

Cleveland said the woman who claimed she was attacked contacted Detective Curtis directly to report the attack. According to court documents, the woman contacted Curtis directly.

“I think he should have done what police protocol dictates: had her come in and file a report or had a uniformed officer go to her and file a report and then it should have gone through the usual channels, but that never happened,” Cleveland said.

Cleveland was accused Second degree assaultwhich means that a person is accused of causing serious injury to the victim. It is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Cleveland said photos in the case show that the woman suffered minor injuries.

Cleveland also said she and her sister did not attack the woman at all. A video of the fight shows someone else hitting the woman, and at one point Cleveland is seen leaning over toward the woman before she is pulled away. Cleveland said in the video she tried to break up the fight.

“There was never a warrant out for my arrest or anything like that, he arrested me right there at my workplace,” Cleveland said.

Cleveland also questioned something Curtis allegedly said during an interview with the alleged victim.

In the recorded interview, the woman talks about being hit in the neck and face before saying, “But she was also drunk, so she didn’t hit me that hard.”

At this point, Curtis can be heard repeating the word “neck” before whispering, “Don’t say anything (unintelligible).”

Cleveland believes Curtis manipulated the alleged victim by trying to dissuade her from saying anything.

The charges against Cleveland and her sister were eventually dropped without prejudice.

Cleveland hopes that the way the police respond to complaints and concerns from citizens about their officers will change in the future.

“I want our police to look at this, take a hard look at themselves and consider what they could have done,” Cleveland said.