LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A third woman has filed a lawsuit alleging she was forced to serve as a confidential informant and sexually abused for years by Louisville Metro Police Detective Brian Bailey.
The woman, identified in court documents as "Jane Doe 3," claims Bailey showed up at her home, pressured her to perform oral sex inside a police vehicle and gave her heroin, among other accusations.
Bailey has been under investigation by the department’s Public Integrity Unit, which investigates officers for potential criminal charges, for at least 14 months over similar allegations made by two other women.
Bailey has not been criminally charged, but his police powers have been suspended while on an administrative reassignment. His attorney, James McKiernan, has repeatedly declined to comment.
LMPD does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court last Thursday, is seeking a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.
Besides the three woman who have filed lawsuits, another woman has made similar accusations against Bailey, according to documents obtained by WDRB News and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.
KyCIR and WDRB first documented Bailey’s pattern of questionable warrants and accusations of sexual misconduct with confidential informants in February as part of the news organizations’ ongoing examination of LMPD search warrants in the wake of the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
The first woman sued Bailey and the LMPD in October 2020, alleging Bailey coerced her into becoming an informant and forced her to engage in oral sex with him. A second woman asked to join the suit a month later with the same allegations.
The two women say Bailey sexually harassed and assaulted them for two and three years, respectively. The women do not know each other.
The most recent lawsuit claims "Jane Doe 3” was detained in June 2017 by Bailey and his partner, Jared Williams, who is also named as a defendant.
While she had an outstanding warrant, the woman was not arrested, according to the lawsuit. But Bailey approached her later that year in the Portland neighborhood and “directed her inside his unmarked police vehicle,” the suit claims.
The woman alleges Bailey told her you “owe me” and asked for oral sex. She complied “for fear of the ramifications,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Vince Johnson, who now represents two of the alleged victims.
The woman claims Bailey sexually abused her multiple times through May of last year, according to the suit.
At least once, Bailey showed up at her home, but her boyfriend was there, according to the suit.
Another time, he allegedly followed her into the parking lot of a store. Knowing Bailey “would sexually abuse her, she remained in the store for a lengthy period of time until he finally left," the suit claims.
Also, the lawsuit alleges the woman was forced by Bailey and Williams to act as a confidential informant. She claims she received cash payments.
In addition, the woman claims Bailey knew she was a drug addict and gave her heroin.
The woman told another LMPD officer about the abuse in late 2020 and the officer took her to the Public Integrity Unit on Feb. 21, where she gave a statement, according to the lawsuit.
LMPD has acknowledged in court records that a woman filed a complaint with police in February accusing Bailey of sexual misconduct while she was an informant.
As in the previous lawsuits, “Jane Doe 3” is also suing officers involved in a 2016 criminal investigation of Bailey, in which a woman told police investigators that Bailey had touched her breast while in his office, sent her pictures of his penis from his cellphone and coerced her into sending him sexually explicit photos.
The woman, who had been arrested by Bailey on drug charges, said she complied with the detective’s demands because he threatened to use her criminal case against her — saying a conviction would stop her from going on field trips with her daughter.
Despite her allegations, LMPD investigators waited more than eight months to try to interview Bailey before closing the case as “unfounded” after he refused to be interviewed.
There is no indication the Public Integrity Unit, which investigates officers for potential criminal charges, tried to obtain Bailey’s cellphone for forensic testing.
In addition, police never opened an internal investigation with its Professional Standards Unit, according to court documents and records provided by LMPD. It is typical LMPD practice to do so after a criminal probe is complete. That would have let investigators look for violations of police procedure and could have compelled Bailey to talk and provide his cellphone.
The woman, who is not being identified by WDRB and KyCIR because she is an alleged victim of sexual abuse, has not joined the lawsuit with the women currently suing LMPD and the city over Bailey’s alleged actions.
Bailey obtained more residential search warrants than any other LMPD officer between January 2019 and June 2020, according to an analysis by KyCIR and WDRB News of all 472 publicly available warrants from that period. He obtained more search warrants than the next two officers combined.
All but one of Bailey’s warrants reviewed by KyCIR and WDRB was based, at least in part, on the word of confidential informants.
Attorneys have raised flags about Bailey’s use of confidential informants, accusing him in court of relying on “boilerplate” affidavits and, in some cases, making up information.
Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine has said that some Bailey cases are being dismissed or resolved by plea agreement because of the allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct.
This story follows reporting done in collaboration with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.
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