LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville Metro Police officer filed a sexual harassment lawsuit Tuesday against the department and two supervisors at LMPD, records show. 

According to the filing, the woman suing is an Army veteran and the mother of a 2-year-old boy.

The female officer says in her suit the harassment began when she joined the police academy on Feb. 19, 2023. She claims within a week of her starting with LMPD, one of her instructors at the academy began making inappropriate comments.

In her complaint, the officer says her training instructor asked in front of the class if she “had a one-night stand to have your son? Is that why the kid doesn’t have a father?”

In another instance, when the female officer was having difficulty finding child care so she could work at the Kentucky Derby Festival’s Pegasus Parade, she asked the training officer what she should do. According to the lawsuit, the instructor responded again in front of her co-workers. He allegedly said, she should “whore herself out for childcare” and specifically detailed that she should “go on a date, take a guy home, sleep with him, and then [she] would have childcare.”

The female officer told another training sergeant about what was happening. The officer reported what she learned about the training officer to the “chain of command” and it was referred to the Professional Standards Unit.

PSU found the training officer violated LMPD policy regarding Conduct Unbecoming and Courtesy. The training officer was exonerated on the charge of harassment/sexual harassment. According to the lawsuit, the officer received a letter of reprimand in his personnel folder and was transferred from LMPD’s training division to patrol division.

The officer filing the lawsuit said she received “backlash” after participating in the PSU investigation of the training officer.

She graduated from the police academy and was sworn in as an LMPD officer on Sept. 8, 2023.

The lawsuit says new police officers must go through three training phases before they can go out on their own. The new officer was assigned to work at LMPD’s sixth patrol division first and the other two training phases were with the third division.

For the second phase of her training, she was assigned her field training officer who, according to the suit, began making inappropriate “comments and advances that made her feel uncomfortable.” The training officer allegedly asked the female officer “if she would be interested in him romantically, if he were not married.” She stated she said no and that she wanted to keep the relationship professional.

The suit says the field training officer would often touch her arm when they were in a patrol car, and in one instance, she removed her bulletproof vest and the field training officer allegedly said “he did not know she ‘had abs’ and brushed against her lower breast as he attempted to raise her shirt.”

According to the lawsuit, on Nov. 18-19, 2023, the field training officer sent the officer several sexually explicit text messages.

The suit says when the officer entered the third phase of her training, she confided in her new field training officer. The new FTO wrote a letter detailing the complaint and sent it to a sergeant. The lawsuit alleges no action was taken.

On April 12, 2024, the female officer sent a memorandum to a major detailing the misconduct allegations again. A PSU investigation was initiated. There is no outcome mentioned in the lawsuit about the second PSU investigation.

The lawsuit comes almost a week after LMPD police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel was suspended for her handling of another sexual harassment case within the department. When Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, announced the chief’s suspension, he said, “This situation is especially concerning given that just last March, the U.S. Department of Justice raised serious concerns about LMPD’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations.”

“I will not tolerate sexual misconduct in Louisville Metro Government, including LMPD. Rules and policies are in place for a reason and they need to be followed,” he said  

LMPD said in a statement that they take allegations seriously. 

“We take all allegations of this nature seriously and immediately launch internal investigations once they are brought to our attention per our Standard Operating Procedures,” the statement said. “Regarding the specific allegations contained in the lawsuit, one investigation was completed in 2023. That officer was disciplined and transferred. The other investigation is ongoing and while it is ongoing, the officer has been reassigned with powers limited pending the outcome of the investigation. Neither is assigned to the same division or unit as the officer who has asserted the allegations. While we appreciate the opportunity to respond, we are unable to provide additional comment due to pending litigation.”