On Wednesday, August, 15, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings released the names of four more police officers who are defendants in the suit – Matthew Gelhausen, Paul Brandon Parris, Julie Schmidt, and Casey Scott. These names had not previously been known to the public.
Jennings’ fifteen page ruling ordered the suits opened, but it doesn’t take affect for fifteen days, so at this point, details are scarce as to exactly what role those defendants played in the abuse scandal. Two other suits – those against Brandon Wood and Kenneth Betts – were unsealed in an earlier decision. Betts has been charged with two counts of sodomy. Wood has been charged with seven counts of sexual abuse. Both have entered pleas of not guilty.
Seven plaintiffs have not only alleged they were sexually abused in the Explorer Scouts program by former police officers who worked with scouts, but also that the city and police department hid evidence the scouts were abused. The city, the departments involved, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Lincoln Heritage Council are all named as defendants in each of the cases. All of the events were alleged to have taken place between 2011 and 2013. Each suit was originally filed in Jefferson Circuit Court.
Louisville Metro Council Involved
The Louisville Metro Council has also been closely following the scandal. They have now received two presentations regarding how the police handled the scandal from Lexington attorney Kerry Harvey, a former federal prosecutor, who compiled a 90 page report on the subject. His conclusions suggest the department made a number of errors, but that there was no evidence of a cover up. The report will make its way to the court as evidence at some point in the future.