Ky. Supreme Court rejects city's request to hold former Louisville Police officer liable for $8.5M lawsuit

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Kentucky Supreme Court criticized the city and police department in an order Thursday when it ruled Metro Government will not be able to recoup $8.5 million from a disgraced detective whose actions led to the settlement in a wrongful conviction lawsuit.

In July 2020, the city filed a lawsuit against Mark Handy, arguing his “fraudulent, malicious, or corrupt actions” were the cause of the lawsuit and settlement reached following Edwin Chandler’s exoneration after spending nine years in prison.

The lawsuit sought an order for Handy to pay for the settlement and legal fees.

In essence, the city argued it did not know the full extent of Handy’s actions until he pleaded guilty to perjury and tampering with physical evidence earlier in 2020.

But Handy's attorneys, Michael Denbow, Michael Risley and Jennifer Henry Jackson, ended up arguing the case to the state Supreme Court, which ruled the five-year statute of limitations ran out as the city should have known Handy was corrupt when the lawsuit was filed and then settled in 2012.

“This should have put Metro on notice that something was very badly amiss with Handy and his conduct,” according to the ruling. “Had Metro exercised due diligence or, indeed performed any follow up investigation of Handy at all, it could have easily discovered that his investigation was absolutely wrought with malice, fraud and corruption.”

Instead, Handy remained on the force and was a defendant in multiple wrongful conviction lawsuits.

"By its own admission, Metro allowed Handy to continue his employment as an LMPD detective after the Chandler settlement," the high court ruled. "Metro now tries to benefit from its own claimed inaction, asserting that it did not know of Handy’s misconduct until he pled guilty to perjury."

Two of the seven justices disagreed with the majority, ruling the decision leaves taxpayers responsible for shouldering the cost of Handy’s mistakes even though “the first conclusive evidence” of his fraud was not produced until he was convicted in 2020.

“The majority allows an admittedly dishonest police officer, Mark Handy, to escape all financial responsibility for the actions he took that led to the wrongful imprisonment of an innocent man,” Justice Kelly Thompson wrote. Justice Angela Bisig concurred with his dissent.

Chandler spent nine years in prison for the murder of Brenda Whitfield, which a court later found he did not commit.

Prosecutors say Handy forced Chandler into a false confession, taped over video evidence and lied on the stand in the Chandler case.

Four people with a conviction involving Handy have been exonerated. Handy’s investigations have been the focus of multiple wrongful imprisonment lawsuits.

In September, the city agreed to pay $20.5 million to two men who were also victims of Handy and the department, which played a central role in their wrongful conviction for the alleged "satanic ritual" killing of Rhonda Sue Warford in 1992.

The Louisville Metro Police Department and Handy were accused of working with Meade County Sheriff Joseph Greer, and others, to create a "false theory" that Clark and Hardin murdered Warford in a Satanic ritual killing.

When Handy failed to get the men to confess after falsely telling them they had failed a polygraph, Handy "simply fabricated inculpatory statements," including that Clark admitted sacrificing animals as part of a Satanic ritual and later decided that he wanted to "do a human," according to the lawsuit.

Handy was released on home incarceration just weeks into his one-year prison sentence.

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