Louisville mayor places LMPD chief on leave over her handling of sexual harassment allegations | News from WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday after Mayor Craig Greenberg learned of how she “handled an allegation of workplace sexual harassment involving LMPD officers.”

Greenberg said in a late afternoon press conference that the allegation was not about Gwinn-Villaroel, but rather about how she handled it after she learned about it.

“This concern relates to her handling of the allegation after she learned of it,” Greenberg said.

Retired FBI agent David Beyer will lead an independent investigation into the chief’s handling of the allegation, Greenberg said. A separate, independent investigation will look into the harassment allegation itself. Beyer previously investigated sexual harassment allegations at Metro Corrections and TARC at the request of the City Council.

“This situation is particularly concerning given that just last month the U.S. Department of Justice raised serious concerns about the LMPD’s handling of allegations of sexual misconduct,” Greenberg said. “I will not tolerate sexual misconduct in Louisville city government, including in the LMPD.”

Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey will lead the department in the role of “acting chief.” Humphrey joined the LMPD in 2006 and spent several years as an officer in the 1st and 6th Divisions in the Newburg and Russell neighborhoods. He joined the SWAT team in 2010 and became its commander in 2017.

In August 2019, Humphrey was promoted to major and named director of training and recruitment. In March 2021, he was promoted to deputy chief and also assumed command of the LMPD’s administrative office.

Humphrey said he was “committed to moving the department forward” and said the LMPD would cooperate with the investigation.

“LMPD takes allegations of sexual misconduct very seriously,” he said. “We will treat this process with the seriousness it deserves and respect the conclusions of the independent investigation and the mayor’s resulting decisions. We will not allow this to distract us.”

Greenberg did not provide details about the sexual harassment allegations, but said he was recently made aware of the allegations and would provide Beyer with more information.

Beyer was hired on Monday.

When asked by a reporter if he had heard a recording of the chief’s response to the allegations, Greenberg said, “I have not heard any of the recordings you are referring to.”

A report on WAVE3, scheduled to air at 5 p.m. Wednesday, included an audio recording of the chief’s meeting with her command staff and the promotion of a male officer to lieutenant colonel shortly after a female major accused him of sexual harassment.

“I hear your concern,” the chief said, according to the audio recording of the WAVE report.

Attorney Jared Smith, who represents Shannon Lauder, the officer accused of sexual harassment, said in a statement that Gwinn-Villaroel’s comments were “aggressive and threatening.”

“The environment does not feel welcoming or safe,” he said in a statement. “The Chief’s response to Major Lauder’s allegation paints a disturbing picture of a department that lacks strong leadership and does not put the well-being of its officers first. We are currently investigating this matter and Major Lauder is taking time to process what happened and consider her options. We are encouraged by the actions Mayor Greenburg has taken.”

Gwinn-Villaroel was named permanent chief of the LMPD last July after serving as deputy chief and interim chief for the department for nearly two years. She was interim chief when an Old National Bank employee opened fire on a downtown Louisville office building and when the Justice Department released a scathing report rebuking LMPD’s actions in recent years.

Prompted by the death of Breonna Taylor in 2020, the Justice Department’s investigation concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that the LMPD and city government “engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” including excessive use of force, searches based on invalid warrants, and conducting unauthorized traffic and pedestrian stops.

Police took a closer look at 33 cases of possible officer misconduct listed in the report released in March 2023 that were either not formally investigated or not formally investigated at all. After a formal review of the cases, the chief said “no further formal investigations will take place.”

Gwinn-Villaroel and the city’s attorneys have repeatedly downplayed the Justice Department’s findings in civil cases against LMPD in court. In depositions, she repeatedly referred to the Justice Department’s findings as “allegations” that had nothing to do with the case at hand, a lawsuit filed by the family of Trevon Mitchell, who was killed when a suspect ran a traffic light and struck his moped.

In November, Gwinn-Villaroel testified under oath at Mitchell’s death trial that she was not wearing a body camera at the scene of a fatal crash in 2021, after which the crash victims’ attorney presented photographic evidence of that.

Gwinn-Villaroel was called to the witness stand in the civil case against LMPD Officer Ben Sullivan over a 2021 police chase that ended in a fatal crash at the intersection of Broadway and Dr. WJ Hodge Street. The police chief testified that the pursuit, which violated department policy, was not the cause of the crash that killed Mitchell.

Following allegations that the pursuit may have been racially motivated, Gwinn-Villaroel testified that there was no footage from her device’s body camera because she was not wearing a camera when she visited the crime scene. But lawyers later showed a snapshot of video from the crime scene showing that Gwinn-Villaroel was wearing a body camera.

Most recently, the LMPD was in the national spotlight after Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top golfer, was arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club in east Louisville during PGA Championship week. Three LMPD officers initially did not have their body cameras on when Scheffler was arrested on May 17 for allegedly refusing to stop as he entered Valhalla and dragging an officer – charges that have since been dropped.

According to 63 pages of documents, images and an investigative file released Friday, Detectives Bryan Gillis and Kelvin Watkins and Officer Javar Downs failed to turn on their body cameras, violating police regulations. The officers had to fill out “non-activation” forms. Gillis received counseling.

There is no body-worn camera footage of the incident before Gillis was allegedly attacked. In addition to not having his body camera on, Gillis was verbally reprimanded for reaching into a running vehicle.

“Tactically, he acted poorly by making what amounted to a misunderstanding about a traffic violation (a punishable B offense according to the KRS) even riskier and therefore hardly rewarded,” the investigation states.

Gwinn-Villaroel came to Louisville after serving as “commander of the training academy” with the Atlanta Police Department and “working tirelessly to implement a number of initiatives to improve police training to meet the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing,” an LMPD press release said when she was hired as deputy police chief.

Gwinn-Villaroel has been described as a devoted wife and mother. She was senior pastor of Unstoppable Praise Ministry in Atlanta. She previously led First Gethsemane Baptist Church in Atlanta. According to that church’s website, Gwinn-Villaroel’s husband, David Villaroel, is also in law enforcement. He is listed as a major in the APD and as the director of communications.

Erika Shields, then-LMPD chief, worked with Gwinn-Villaroel at APD for more than 20 years.

This story may be updated.

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