City of Louisville pays settlement to woman groped in gas station by on-duty police officer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville Metro Police officer tied up, kissed and groped a worker at a gas station while he was on duty. Now, the city is paying for it.

Officer Robert Neff pleaded guilty in October 2020 to sexual misconduct and official misconduct for the incidents at a Thorntons gas station off Bardstown Road near Fern Creek. Recently, Metro Government reached a $55,000 agreement with the victim, Emery Taylor, according to a quarterly lawsuit settlement report.

"He definitely abused his badge," Taylor said in an interview with WDRB. "I just didn't understand the whole situation, because it wasn't something I had tried to partake in before. I didn't take (his) number. I didn't do anything but be cordial and nice."

WDRB obtained store security video from March 2020 that shows Neff briefly tie Taylor's hands behind her back with plastic wrap and then use a knife to cut her free as she tries to pull away.

Taylor — a manager at Thorntons — said Neff came into the gas station where she worked often as officers received free coffee and drinks, and the plastic wrap was just part of the harassment.

"He wanted to give me a hug, so we side-hugged, and then he kissed me on my cheek," Taylor said. "At that point, I told people I am uncomfortable around him and this is not something I am wanting to pursue."

The next day, Neff returned to the gas station, and police reports say he stayed more than two hours while on duty and "followed" Taylor around the store. Taylor said Neff admitted to having romantic feelings for her, she told him that she was in a relationship and only wanted to be friends. That same day, security footage in the back storage area of the gas station captured two separate incidents where Neff groped Taylor. Prosecutors said he claimed to be faking a search.

Taylor is adamant she never had any kind of relationship or fraternization with Neff outside him coming into her job.

"He was grabbing down between my shirt and was trying to rub up against my leg area," she said. "He made me put my hands behind my back and restrained me to where I couldn't move."

While recounting that day, Taylor began to sob, saying she felt angry, nervous and scared as his hands ran over her body, thinking about how Neff's actions or whatever she did to respond could affect her job.

"Why did he see me as the vulnerable person to come into my safe place of work and try to take advantage of me in any way he could?" she said.

Thorntons on Taylor Boulevard *(WDRB Photo)*

It was another officer who frequented the store and talked Taylor about the incident who turned Neff in to LMPD superiors. The misdemeanor charges he confessed to in a plea deal came with probation and no time behind bars.

Neff quit LMPD at the time of his guilty plea.

"I don't think he should have had a right to resign," Taylor said. "I think he should have been fired. He got a slap on the wrist."

Neff's attorney didn't return a request for comment, and LMPD declined.

The $55,000 paid to Taylor is a small piece of the much bigger LMPD settlement pie. WDRB has recently reported on several multimillion-dollar payouts related to police misconduct, including $2 million for Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in relation to the raid that killed her and $1.8 million paid to three women who accused former Detective Brian Bailey of sexual abuse.

Louisville Metro Council President David James said the settlements are another example of the problematic culture and lax accountability within the city's police department.

"It's good that we were able to settle it and the victims were made whole," James told WDRB in an October interview after the Bailey case. "But it's very sad (and) disappointing that one of our police officers would do such a thing."

James said there's been a significant amount of money paid out in civil litigation — specifically cases involving LMPD — in recent years, and it ultimately reduces the city's ability to provide public services.

The city has spent about $40 million since 2017, which dwarfs what neighboring states and other larger cities have paid for police mistakes in recent years, a WDRB News investigation found. Louisville lost its excess insurance provider, the kind that covered the most high-dollar payouts in July of 2021.

"Because of the large number of payouts we have outside insurance carriers look at Louisville and say, 'No, I don't think so,'" James said.

It means these payouts for policing problems now fall more on taxpayers.

"If the cops were just doing what they should do, that money could be used for so many different things in our city," Taylor said.

Eleven former LMPD officers have pleaded guilty to federal charges since 2019 for crimes committed while working for the city's police department. There are several more convictions linked to LMPD when including cases like Neff's which stayed in state court.

The Department of Justice is reviewing it all as part of an ongoing pattern and practice investigation examining whether LMPD routinely violates the law. The police department is preparing for the probe to result in a consent decree, a federally mandated contract for reform. The high-level sanctioning oversight agreement sets tangible requirements for change, metrics to measure the improvement and timelines to achieve them.

Taylor believes that agreement should include more stringent background and mental health screening before an officer is hired and hits the streets.

"If they're mentally unstable, they're going to act out and do mentally unstable things to people who don't deserve it at all," she said.

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