City pays $375,000 to Black Louisville teen handcuffed during viral traffic stop

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The city will pay $375,000 to Tae-Ahn Lea, the Black teenager whose constitutional rights were violated when Louisville police pulled him over in 2018 for allegedly making a wide turn, removed him from his vehicle and handcuffed him while they searched his car.

Both sides were in a teleconference on Tuesday and the 2019 case was dismissed Wednesday, according to court records.

"We're pleased that the city stepped up and resolved the case," said Sam Aguiar, one of Lea's attorneys.

"Tae might be the most impressive young man I've ever met," Aguiar said in a statement. "I admire everything about him. He epitomizes class, respect and the hard worker who makes dreams a reality."

A spokesman for the Jefferson County Attorney's office, which represented the city in the lawsuit, did not immediately offer a comment on the settlement.

Lea, now 22, works in sales at Oxmoor Auto Group dealership.

The stop went viral after a video of it was put on YouTube. The Louisville Metro Police Department was scrutinized and widely condemned for how officers treated Lea and eventually the police chief changed department traffic stop policies.

The 9th Mobile Division, the unit responsible for the stop — and several other controversial traffic stops and arrests — was disbanded in late 2019.

"The courage of Tae and his mom to stand up to the system resulted in a complete overhaul of unconstitutional, racially targeted traffic stops and the dismantling of a rogue police division," Aguiar said. "Pretty incredible stuff for a young man who was just a teenager when this happened."

As shown in body camera video, officers physically removed Lea from the car, patted him down, handcuffed him for nearly 20 minutes and searched his car after bringing in a drug dog. No contraband was found. A citation for the wide turn was quickly dismissed in court.

In September 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Greg Stivers determined that former Detective Kevin Crawford had no legal reason to be suspicious of Lea and violated his right against unreasonable seizure by removing him from his car during the Aug. 9, 2018, traffic stop at 18th Street and Algonquin Parkway.

That summary judgement ruling in Lea's lawsuit meant the amount paid to Lea was the only thing left to be determined, not whether police violated the then 18-year-old's rights.

Stivers dismissed the city and three other officers involved in the stop from the lawsuit, but upheld the major allegations: that Crawford had wrongfully detained and searched Lea without cause.

Crawford, who is now a patrol officer for the Jeffersonville Police Department in Clark County, Indiana, could not be reached for comment.

He was a defendant in two similar lawsuits while with LMPD.

Crawford was one of the officers involved in a lawsuit filed by a couple removed from their vehicle and searched by officers after being pulled over in August 2018 for allegedly not using a turn signal while driving home from church.

The couple was paid $75,000 by the city to settle the federal discrimination lawsuit.

Crawford was also named in a lawsuit filed by a man who was pulled over with a mentally disabled passenger on Sept. 18, 2018, and frisked while a drug sniffing dog and officers searched the vehicle, even removing speakers out of the trunk.

That case is still pending.

Crawford has defended the Lea stop in sworn testimony, saying Lea was slow to pull over, his hands were shaking, and he did not tell the officer he had a "weapon" — a miniature Louisville Slugger baseball bat — in his vehicle.

"There were indications of criminal activity with Tae-Ahn Lea," Crawford said, according to a deposition taken.

Body cam video shows Lea was not slow to pull over.

And Stivers ruled that "the mere possession of a souvenir bat weighing six ounces ... does not objectively support a reasonable belief that Lea was armed any more than a screwdriver, a sharpened pencil or a pair of scissors, had those objects been present inside the car. This is particularly true given that Lea gave no indication of any attempt to brandish or even touch the souvenir bat."

Stivers also ruled "it is well established that nervousness alone is not a sufficient basis on which to articulate reasonable suspicion."

In fact, Stivers noted that Lea acted less nervous and more "confused" as to why he had been stopped.

"A reasonable officer would have known that nervousness was not a reliable indicator of whether a potential suspect is armed and dangerous," Stivers wrote.

The judge added that Lea's "demeanor and actions cannot be described as nervous, but rather exasperated or annoyed."

Lea, who was driving his mother's Dodge Charger, was handcuffed for about 20 minutes while police and a K-9 searched his vehicle. He was on the way home from buying an Icee.

Lea was a past homecoming king at Central High School with no criminal record.

While the incident sparked calls for police accountability and helped change LMPD traffic stop policies, the internal investigation languished for nearly two years and no disciplinary action was taken against any officer involved.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in June 2019, Lea claims he was "targeted" by LMPD officers because of his skin color in an illegal stop and search "to be the next victim for their pack."

But Crawford denied pulling Lea over because he was Black and driving in the west end.

"The reason I didn't just write him a ticket is I believed he was hiding something," Crawford said, according to a copy of the deposition obtained by WDRB News. "If it wasn't weapons, then it could have been narcotics."

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