LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The city has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed she was groped by a Louisville Metro Police officer during a 2019 traffic stop.
Kali Coates was with her boyfriend and family members when she was pulled over by police on Jan. 5, 2019, after turning onto 28th Street from Virginia Avenue.
After ordering her out of the vehicle, Officer Tyler Gelnett “inappropriately” placed his hands in her “crotch area” and then into her underwear, according to the suit, filed in early 2020.
Then, after Gelnett moved Coates to the rear of the car, he began a second search. At that point, she accuses Gelnett of "groping her buttocks and her vagina to the point that another officer intervened and admonished him," the suit claims.
Police body camera video obtained by WDRB News shows another officer, a man, telling a visibly upset Coates that Gelnett was in training and apologized for the way she was searched, saying the officer would be punished.
“We apologize to you,” the unnamed officer told Coates after the traffic stop, according to the video. “I want to personally apologize.”
Under terms of the Feb. 11 settlement, “the compromise of a doubtful and disputed claim” is not an admission of guilt, according to documents obtained under the Kentucky open records law.
In November 2020, Gelnett was charged with official misconduct and drug trafficking for allegedly seizing marijuana while handling cases but then giving it to a woman he was in a relationship with.
He resigned from the department and pleaded guilty to official misconduct in 2021.
In the Coates case, body cam footage shows Gelnett asking her to get out of the vehicle after the other officer said he smelled marijuana on a passenger.
After initially patting down Coates next to her vehicle, the other officer told Gelnett to bring her to the back of the car to search her.
It is unclear from Gelnett’s body camera where exactly he placed his hands the first time he searched Coates.
During the second search, Gelnett moved his hands across her lower abdomen, up her legs and appeared to touch her buttocks before the unnamed officer told him to stop and move away from the scene, the video shows.
Coates jumped as Gelnett touched her. “Jesus,” she said, according to body cam video. “So rude.”
“Hey, hey, stop, time,” the unnamed officer told Gelnett. “Time out. Time out. Go back there.”
After Gelnett moved away, the other officer told Coates that Gelnett was in training and had not properly frisked her. For example, the officer said Gelnett was supposed to use the back of his hand.
“He’s a new officer; I’m training him,” the unnamed officer said.
Coates told police Gelnett had “used his fingers” while searching her.
“I’ve never had nobody … it was awkward,” she said to the other officer.
Her boyfriend, who had also been removed from the vehicle, told the officer that Gelnett “looked dead at me in his face when he did that.”
“As soon as I saw him, I stopped him,” the officer told the couple. “It’s all being recorded. I want to reassure you of that.”
And the officer added that Gelnett would be punished for his actions.
“He had no idea what he was doing, I’ll be honest with you,” the officer said, according to body cam video.
While the passenger in the vehicle admitted he had smoked marijuana earlier in the day, nothing was found in the car and they were let go without a ticket.
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