LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Chance Anthony grew up wanting to be in law enforcement, like his dad and brother before him, preparing at an early age by riding along with troopers and visiting the state police post in Elizabethtown.
Even though he was born without the portion of his right arm below the elbow, Anthony majored in criminal justice in college and moved closer to his goal when the city of Leitchfield hired him as a police recruit in 2019.
He then enrolled in the Department of Criminal Justice Training's academy in Richmond, where he won two awards for excellence and was told he had graduated. But when it came time for the graduation ceremony, Anthony's dream took a nightmarish turn: He said he was pulled aside and told by the head of the state training department that he had actually failed.
"There's no other reason in the world you wouldn't qualify me except for I don't look like what you want the typical officer to look like," Anthony said in an interview this week.
In a discrimination lawsuit against the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training, Anthony and his attorneys accuse former commissioner Nicolai Jilek of committing crimes by ordering officials to change his testing scores and keep him from graduating.
His status was changed from "graduate" to "departed/failure" despite ranking near the top of his class after Jilek took over as commissioner in 2020, according to court records and testimony in the lawsuit.
Jilek, now a major commanding the Louisville Metro Police Department's training division, is not a defendant in the lawsuit. He declined to comment, deferring instead to attorneys for the state justice cabinet.Â
Major Nicolai Jilek, LMPD's Training Commander.
Last month, a judge agreed that Anthony was discriminated against and that the training academy could not win the case "under any circumstances." Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate granted Anthony summary judgement, meaning a trial is not needed because the evidence was overwhelming.
Now, a jury will only need to determine how much money the state will have to pay. No trial date has been set. Anthony and his attorneys are asking for $25 million, according to court records.
Despite passing tests and being listed as a graduate on the training academy's computer, Jilek claimed Anthony failed due to his handicap, the judge wrote in his order.
"The record provides ample illustrations that lead to the conclusion that (Anthony) was discriminated against on the basis of his disability," Wingate ruled.
In fact, the ruling says Anthony "passed various graded tests that Commissioner Jilek claimed he failed due to his handicap."
Attorneys for the state have asked the judge to reconsider his ruling.Â
The lawsuit, filed in 2021, claims Jilek never observed what Anthony could do at the academy. Instead, after observing Anthony's appearance, the former commissioner "simply made the assumption" that Anthony could not perform as an officer because of his disability.
Moments before Anthony was to graduate, the lawsuit claims, Jilek pulled him aside and told him his graduation folder would not contain a graduation certificate and he was not to tell any of the other graduates because "it might upset them." Anthony was then sent home.
"Things went really south really quick," Anthony said in an interview. "It blew me off guard. Heartbroken."
Jilek also asked staffers to change Anthony's status from graduated to "failure," according to emails provided in the lawsuit. In one email thread, a staff member wrote that the computer program did not give her the option of changing Anthony's overall training score of 91.44% to failure.
"Any suggestions?" she asked.
An administrative specialist wrote back: "We would need to know what to fail him in for the system to recognize him as failed."
"I don't believe he failed any of the academic exams. Is it possible to override the final score?" asked another person.
The group continued to email each other on how they could fail him and properly backdate it.
Roy Jude, who was assistant director of the training division when Anthony was there, said in an affidavit in court records Anthony "excelled" at all the tasks and Jilek caused his graduation status to be "altered falsely" to indicate that Anthony had failed.
Jilak's predecessor, former commissioner Alex Payne, who left just as Anthony was graduating, awarded a certificate to Anthony for successfully completing basic training. In an interview, Payne said Anthony was a "standout."
Payne, now retired, told WDRB News he learned Anthony didn't graduate soon after he left.
"It's the worst case of discrimination that I've ever seen," Payne said. "In this case, somebody looked at him. That's the only thing I can wrap my head around as far as a reason not to let this young man graduate. Because they looked at him and he was different than everybody else."
Thomas Clay, a Louisville attorney representing Anthony, wrote in court records Jilek has committed felony crimes of tampering with official records and forgery of public records for ordering staff to change Anthony's status.
There is no indication Jilek or anyone with the academy is under investigation.Â
In a deposition, Jilek was asked whether Anthony wasn't allowed to graduate because of his disability.
Former Leitchfield Officer Chance Anythony was named officer of the year the one year he was allowed to serve as a police officer.Â
Jilek said Anthony couldn't complete the objectives because he was disabled.
As to Anthony completing all the necessary tasks to graduate, Jilek testified that he "had come to the decision that (Anthony) – in my opinion, I felt that he did not qualify to graduate ...," according to the deposition.
When pressed during the deposition, however, Jilek admitted Anthony passed all of the required tests.
When Jilek took over from Payne in February 2020, he decided that Anthony did not in fact pass the basic training and was given certain accommodations during the testing. He testified he told Anthony he could walk across the stage with his class but that, in Jilek's opinion, there were essential tasks he was unable to complete.
Clay said "it astounds me" that Jilek is working the same position now for LMPD, saying in an interview that he provided the department copies of Jilek's deposition where he admitted not allowing Anthony to graduate because of his disability.
Clay said he does not know if LMPD knows about the alleged criminal charges in changing Anthony's grades as that information only recently was provided to him. He said he has "no indication" Jilek is under any investigation.
Asked if LMPD knew about the lawsuit and claims against Jilek, a spokesman would only confirm that Jilek is the department's training commander and say he could not discuss a pending case.Â
"LMPD respects the judicial process," according to the statement. "Therefore, we cannot comment on pending litigation, but we do look forward to the outcome of this case."
The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet said in a statement that "multiple instructors raised concerns about Chance Anthony's ability to meet these critical requirements."
Spokesperson Morgan Hall said there was an administrative hearing after the recommendation not to pass Anthony and the cabinet heard both sides and ruled he be denied his graduation certificate.
"We disagree with the plaintiff's, and his attorney's allegations, of wrongdoing and this matter is being litigated," she wrote.
She did not answer whether there was an investigation into the allegations of crimes being committed by changing Anthony's graduation status. Because of COVID and the appeal, Anthony was able to remain a police officer for a year after he allegedly didn't graduate from the training academy.
In that year, he received an award for saving someone's life and was named Leitchfield's outstanding officer of the year.
"It's a shame," Payne said. "It's tough to get good people in this line of work anymore and it's really, really hard to get an outstanding human being like Chance is."
Earlier this month, Anthony's attorneys requested a restraining order to force the training academy to acknowledge he had passed all the tests and requirements to be a police officer, as the case has been pending for five years and he would be making more money as an officer and possibly have been promoted.
Anthony said the lawsuit is not about money, but his ongoing desire to be a police officer. Currently, Anthony is working with the Grayson County Sheriff's in administration and court security for the last four years, waiting on the ruling in his case.
"I've shown ... the community and the agencies I've been working for that I can do this job," he said. "Ultimately, the certificate is all I've ever asked for and wanted. And that way I can go back to working on what I want to do. This is what I'm supposed to be doing."
In a discrimination lawsuit against the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training, Chance Anthony and his attorneys accuse former commissioner Nicolai Jilek of committing crimes by ordering officials to change his testing scores and keep him from graduating.
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