LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Former Kentucky State Trooper Aaron Tucker, who is being sued for allegedly beating a handcuffed schizophrenic man in 2019, was rejected by three different law enforcement agencies a total of seven times before being hired by state police.
And Kentucky State Police was responsible for four of those rejected applications after Tucker was deemed unfit to be in law enforcement, according to recently filed records in U.S. District Court in Louisville.
Before eventually hiring him, KSP's background investigation revealed Tucker had a bad character reference, previous employers who said they would not hire him, failed his oral board interview and did not pass physical or psychological examinations.
In addition, Tucker admitted he stole merchandise while working at Wal-Mart, shot stray dogs and cats on his property as a teenager, was fired from multiple jobs and had been banned from working as a substitute teacher at a school after an argument with a student. He also had been served with a domestic restraining order.
"Red flags were raised for years at the Kentucky State Police," said attorney Elliot Slosar, who is representing the man allegedly assaulted by Tucker. "He was clearly never fit to be an officer in the first place."
The amended lawsuit also includes other allegations, claiming KSP lowered the standards for applicants in 2017 that allowed people unqualified to be in law enforcement to become troopers.
And the amended suit claims KSP tried to hide the records showing Tucker's past.
Attorney Elliot Slosar (WDRB photo).
Despite his background, KSP hired him in 2018 and, within nine months, Tucker arrested Timothy "Michael" Heston, slammed his head against a wall, punched and kicked him repeatedly — while Heston was handcuffed — and threw him to the ground, according to video from a jail recording system.
The lawsuit claims Tucker "attacked Michael, who is bi-racial, without provocation, warning or justification and then fabricated a report about the assault."
Heston spent nearly a year in jail; police failed to provide the video to prosecutors, defense attorneys or the judge, according to the suit. The charges were later dismissed.
State police conducted an internal investigation of the case and fired Tucker.
Tucker's history of applications and rejections was disclosed on December 28 in an amended lawsuit claiming state police tried to hide his background and were negligent in his hiring. The updated lawsuit added several KSP officials responsible for looking into Tucker's background and recommending his hire.
In a response filed earlier this week, attorneys for KSP officials argued, in part, that former Chief Rick Sanders was responsible for hiring Tucker, and he is no longer with the department.
Sanders, a defendant in the suit who is now chief of the Jeffersontown Police Department, declined to comment because the litigation is pending.
A KSP spokesman did not respond to questions about Tucker's hiring.
The lawsuit claims Tucker first applied to KSP in 2011 but was rejected because he didn't pass his oral board interview.
In 2013, Tucker applied for a job with the Somerset Police Department but was not hired because of his scores on his physical examination and the oral board interview.
The Burnside Police Department declined to hire Tucker twice -- in 2013 and 2016, citing his written exam and oral board interviews.
Tucker was rejected from KSP again in 2013 because of a bad character reference and statements from two previous employers who said they would not re-hire him, according to the amended lawsuit.
KSP also refused to hire Tucker in 2014 and 2015 after he failed a physical fitness test and psychological examination respectively.
In 2017 KSP announced a change in hiring qualifications because of a lack of applicants and shortage of troopers.
Tucker was hired in 2018.
"What we unearthed through this case was that the Kentucky State Police appears to have lowered their standards, and they did so publicly … and that is when this officer, after having been rejected time and time and time again was allowed to be hired," Slosar said.
Slosar said he will take testimony from KSP officials to determine exactly why standards were lowered and whether they have changed in subsequent years.
"When your own agency declines to hire somebody on multiple occasions because of all these red flags, and then someone from the top says, 'We need more bodies' and totally reverses those prior decisions, it's shocking," he said. "And it's so shocking that people need to be held accountable for that."
The new standards allowed people with no college credits to apply, among other changes.
"Law enforcement has taken some hits lately, especially in the number of applicants we receive," then-KSP spokesman Corey King said in a press release, also noting that many candidates were quitting while going through training.
"This has been the single biggest shake up in recruitment in decades," King said.
KSP now has 899 troopers, up from 736 in November 2021, according to a spokeswoman. She attributes the 22 percent increase in part to a $15,000 pay hike.
After initially only turning over 51 pages of documents related to Tucker's personnel file and applications for employment, attorneys for Heston discovered during questioning of witnesses that KSP had withheld hundreds of pages of records involving Tucker's hiring.
"There was a long fight that our firm had to do in order to get personnel files," Slosar said. "They weren't just produced by the Kentucky State Police. There was an effort to hide these documents from us."
As part of his last KSP application, an official who interviewed Tucker said the candidate was open about his "past indiscretions" and "appeared to be sincerely remorseful."
And some people who knew Tucker personally or employed him vouched for his work ethic and demeanor, according to court records.
Capt. Darren Stapleton concluded that while he entered the investigative hiring process of Tucker with "trepidations," including being previously rejected by KSP, he felt "he has matured and overcame his misguided past," according to court records.
Heston, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 20, was walking along I-65 in Bowling Green on March 17, 2019, attempting to get to Tennessee for his son's birthday, the lawsuit claims.
When stopped by Tucker and asked why he was walking on the interstate, Heston allegedly cursed and threatened the trooper and resisted arrest, according to the police report.
When Heston was taken to jail on charges that included terroristic threatening and resisting arrest he "tensed up" when he was taken out of the cruiser, attempted to spit on Tucker and "used his head to hit me," the arrest citation says.
"After the altercation had ensued, I was able to regain control of the above offender by placing him on the ground," Tucker wrote.
But in surveillance video, obtained by WDRB News, Tucker gets Heston out of the cruiser and, after walking him to the door, Heston seems to weave or stumble and the trooper punches him in the face, pins him against the wall and hits him with his fist several more times.
Tucker also knees the defendant in the face and chest several times before taking him to the ground, the video shows. Heston was handcuffed behind his back.
There is no sound in the video and it does not appear Heston was resisting. It is unclear if Heston spit on or toward the trooper.
The suit also claims jail employees placed Heston in a restraint chair and repeatedly tased him for no reason.
The charges against Heston were eventually dismissed, but not until after he had been indicted.
Heston's defense attorney found the video after receiving discovery material from the jail in preparation for trial.
The suit claims the trooper struck Heston in the face with a pair of steel-toed boots that Heston had been carrying when arrested.
The assault ended when correctional officers "heard a thud" and came out to the sally port, assisting Tucker in "restraining" Heston by holding him down on the concrete floor, the suit claims.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
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