LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jefferson County judge in 2015 set aside a law enforcement officer's conviction for a sex crime involving a child, a key action now that the officer is trying to keep his badge despite a new Kentucky law forbidding people with convictions for misdemeanor sex crimes from having police powers.
The reversal of Todd Walls' 1996 conviction for sex with a 15-year-old "should have never" happened, Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine, the county's top prosecutor, told WDRB News.
The vacating of Walls' misdemeanor conviction was a necessary step to allow the expungement of the 1996 case, essentially erasing all record of the charges against Walls from the court system despite Kentucky's prohibition on expunging convictions for sex crimes and crimes against children.
Wine showed WDRB News a one-page order dated July 1, 2015, in which Jefferson Circuit Judge James Shake expunged Walls' case. The order includes the word "vacated" with Shake's initials next to the sexual misconduct charge.
Wine said it's the only record he has of Shake's action to throw out the conviction.
Once Shake vacated Walls' conviction, Wine said, "That opened the door for this opportunity to expunge."
The purging of Walls' criminal record is at issue because of a new state law, House Bill 206, that forbids people convicted of misdemeanor sex crimes from serving as police officers.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office was forced to fire Walls in September after the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council revoked his police certification, a result of the bipartisan legislation that went into effect in July.
The removal of the conviction and subsequent expungement will become a central focus of Walls' appeal in an attempt to get back his badge, according to Walls' attorney, Thomas Clay.
Once a case is expunged, the file, court videotape, fingerprint cards and all other records are supposed to be sealed forever, not only from the public but from police, prosecutors and the judge. The cases are sealed and removed from public files. If asked about the case, court clerks are required to say it does not exist.
Wine said in an email Tuesday that he is filing a motion to open the expunged file to get a copy of any order vacating the conviction. He said he currently has no record of a motion or order to vacate the conviction other than Shake's notation on the expungement order.
Meanwhile, the victim of Walls' crime has hired an attorney and will seek to have the conviction reinstated. She told WDRB News she had no knowledge of the expungement.
"It makes you feel violated all over again," the victim, now an adult, said in a recent interview. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody."
The expungement order includes no explanation for Shake's decision. Kentucky law allows judges to vacate convictions for situations involving unusual circumstances such as fraud, perjury or some other issue tainting the case.
There is no indication of such circumstances in Walls' case. The evidence against him included a phone call recorded by detectives in which he and a then-15-year-old girl discussed details of their sex life. Walls was 28 when he was convicted.
Shake, who retired in 2017, said in an email that he had "no memory of the case." Shake initially agreed to an interview with WDRB but then declined to schedule it and failed to return three phone calls.
The expungement order notes that the prosecutor working the case for Wine's office objected at the time, but Wine said he personally was never told of Shake's action.
"It should not be expunged if there was a conviction," Wine said. "I'm also suggesting that it probably should have never been vacated because of the public trust."
The now-retired prosecutor, John Balliet, told WDRB News that he recalls objecting to the setting aside of Walls' conviction, but it was only later that Walls had his case expunged. Balliet said he didn't realize at the time that the entire case would later be erased from the courts.
Balliet also confirmed that he didn't alert his superiors at the time as he saw the case as a low-level misdemeanor.
"What I remember is that it involved a police officer; I didn't remember the details of the evidence we had," Balliet said. "I didn't see the end game plan, because the expungement came later."
Walls' attorney, Thomas Clay, claims that his client's police certification can't be revoked because "the conviction doesn't exist." Clay was not Walls' attorney at the time of the expungement in 2015.
Former Jefferson District Court Judge Benham Sims (WDRB photo).
Former Jefferson District Judge Benham Sims, who had a hand in crafting some of Kentucky's expungement laws, questioned whether Walls' case was properly handled.
"I've been involved in thousands of expungements as a prosecutor, as a judge, and as an expungement advocate with the changes in the expungement law. I've never seen a case involving these kinds of allegations, those that were expunged. And the reason is simply that I don't believe the law allows for it," Sims told WDRB News.
"... On the face of it, I think anyone who's in the system would pause and say, 'This doesn't pass the smell test.'"
'For that to be thrown out is just wrong'
Walls confessed to a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 1996 while he worked for the old Louisville police department.
WDRB obtained a copy of the police's Crimes Against Children's Unit file on Walls from a source and authenticated it with one of the original investigators on the case.
A transcript of a phone call recorded by detectives leaves no question about the extent of the sexual encounters between Walls and the teenage girl. They talked on the phone about their sex life, including locations where they'd been intimate and the types of foreplay they enjoyed the most.
"Was I good in bed for a 15-year-old?" the girl asked, according to the call transcript. Walls responded, "Heck Yeah."
Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine during an interview with WDRB News' Gilbert Corsey (WDRB photo).
Originally charged with rape, sodomy and unlawful transaction with a minor, records show Walls quit the force, and the charges were amended from felonies to a single sexual misconduct misdemeanor under a plea deal.
Prior to HB 206, officers convicted of misdemeanor crimes could keep serving in law enforcement.
Walls continued his law enforcement career for 26 years, working with Taylorsville police and West Buechel before joining the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in 2020.
WDRB News located the now-adult woman who had the relationship with Walls, as part of efforts to authenticate CACU police file.
She said she was disgusted by the purging of Walls' conviction.
"It's like I'm a spot on his shoe that they just wiped off," she said. "For that to be thrown out is just wrong."
Wine, the commonwealth's attorney, said he did not know about Shake's order until he looked into the case following WDRB News' reporting on Walls in relation to HB 206 in August.
Wine said he has asked his appellate division to look for a way to walk back the vacated conviction and expungement order.
"I'm not trying to avoid responsibility. I'm responsible for everything that happens in this office," Wine said. "But I have to know about it in order to act on it."
Editing by WDRB's Chris Otts. Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.