LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The cops were cruising along Berry Boulevard in south Louisville when they spotted their next victim: a woman walking down the sidewalk in the rain.
They briefly slowed the car, and the one in passenger seat asked from his window: “Hey baby, you got change for a dollar?”
When the woman turned toward them, the cop yelled, “How bout a drink?” and tossed the contents of his cup at the woman. They sped off and laughed.
It was a pattern the officers of Louisville Metro Police’s former violent crime unit, the Ninth Mobile Division, repeated dozens of times in 2018 and 2019, filming the drink-throwing pranks and sharing the videos with colleagues.
On Saturday — more than a year after two officers were convicted of federal crimes in the scandal known as “Slushygate” — LMPD released the full set of videos and other records from its internal investigation.
The Courier-Journal earlier this week published the “how bout a drink” and several other of the videos. Before that, the videos had only been played in federal court, with no copies released publicly.
"The incidents, which happened in 2018 and 2019, were completely unacceptable and I’m thankful each of the officers caught throwing drinks at people have been prosecuted by the Department of Justice," Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement. "There has also been a complete turnover in LMPD command staff since this happened, and the new chief has punished other officers who knew about the incidents and did not report them."
The primary perpetrators of the Slushygate pranks were former LMPD detectives Curtis Flynn and Bryan Wilson. They each pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges in June 2022. A federal judge called their actions "egregious, conscious (and) shocking" before sending both to prison.
During Flynn and Wilson’s sentencing, prosecutors played about a half-dozen of the videos they made of themselves throwing drinks and containers at citizens.
At least five other officers were suspended for their roles in the incidents, such as helping to film or drive for the encounters, sharing laughs in a group chat and failing to report the conduct.
The assaults occurred between August 2018 and September 2019. The officers were dressed in uniform and driving unmarked vehicles.
Flynn and Wilson, who resigned from LMPD, were the only ones to lose their jobs.
Sgt. Kevin Casper received a 30-day suspension, a demotion and an involuntary unit transfer. Casper knew "subordinates in your chain of command were throwing drinks and/or splashing puddles on civilians, recording the events, and/or watching videos of the acts" and failed to report or stop the misconduct, LMPD Chief Jacqueline Gwinn-Villaroel wrote in a July 20, 2023 letter.
Det. Jonathan Robbins was suspended for 30 days for driving a police vehicle from which drinks were thrown at people on three occasions in October 2018.
Det. John Benzing, who received a 15-day suspension, was seen in one of the videos in which a drink was thrown, according to the chief.
Det. Beau Gadegaard, who received a 10-day suspension, on at least one occasion followed Flynn and Wilson when they threw a drink at a citizen but did not report or attempt to stop the behavior, according to the records.
Det. Joseph Howell also received a 10-day suspension. All of the suspended officers participated in a "chat thread" where a video of at least one instance of misconduct was shared.
The Ninth Mobile Division, which was disbanded in 2019, was an elite police unit organized to combat violent crime. It primarily operated in the poorer areas of the city in south and west Louisville.
The unit’s heavy-handed tactics got illegal guns and drugs off the streets but also sowed distrust in the community.
It was the unit’s officers who pulled over a Black teen in 2018 and removed him from his car, with video of the stop going viral online.
A federal judge later ruled that the detective who led the stop had no legal reason to be suspicious of the teen, Tae-Ahn Lea, and violated his right against unreasonable seizure.
Greenberg, in his statement, said there have been "meaningful improvements" in police accountability and transparency during his first year in office.
"We’ve implemented a new policy for releasing officer involved shooting videos within ten days. We’ve fulfilled nearly 2,000 open records requests for LMPD video (an annual record)," he said. "And we have 63 new graduates from the LMPD academy who will be focused on community policing and building trust with the residents of Louisville."
Police declined to discuss the incidents even as they were preparing to release videos of officers throwing drinks on people.
“We've dealt with ‘Slushygate’ before and we are in the process of putting all that information, all of the videos, all of the disciplinary documents, on our website,” LMPD Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said at a press conference about an officer shooting from mid-December.
Humphrey, who called the officers’ actions “a dark moment in our history,” promised that Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel would be made available to reporters “at a later date.”
This story will be updated.
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- LMPD chief says 'many' officers cited in DOJ probe were previously disciplined, but no further investigations
- Department of Justice issues scathing report into Louisville police practices
- 2 former LMPD officers plead guilty to throwing drinks at people while on duty
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