Louisville police accused of concealing records on officer abuse of Explorer Scouts

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The Louisville Metro Police Department covered up about 740,000 records documenting sexual abuse of Explorer Scouts by two former officers, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. 

The Explorer Scout program, a senior program in early Boy Scout troops, is designed for males and females from ages 10 to 20. Divided into two sections, one for ages 10-14 and the other for older participants, it offers training in careers including law enforcement.

LAWSUIT: FORMER LOUISVILLE OFFICER IN BREONNA TAYLOR RAID SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WOMAN

"The program model is the same for both age groups," the Exploring website reads. "Hands-on and interactive character and career activities are facilitated by trained business leaders in your local community."

Police officers move past Louisville City Hall to clear protesters from a plaza after a grand jury considering the March killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, voted to indict one of three white police officers for wanton endangerment. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The Louisville program came under scrutiny in October 2016, when Officers Kenneth Betts and Brandon Wood were accused of misconduct and an investigation was opened by the department's Public Integrity Unit.

In March of 2017, a 22-year-old filed a sealed lawsuit against Betts and Wood -- also accusing then-Lt. Curtis Flaherty, who ran the Explorer Scouts program, of covering up the abuse.

Three days later, Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer shut down Explorer Scouts.

After further revelations were made public, the FBI opened a criminal investigation, and Wood and Betts were indicted.

In May of 2019, 34-year-old Wood was sentenced to 70 months in prison on enticement charges and over a year later, 36-year-old Betts was sentenced to 16 years on child pornography and enticement charges. Betts also plead guilty to sodomy charges. 

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This month, a suit that is still being litigated asked for up to $6 million in damages from the city. In October, a judge ordered that the city release documents related to the scandal, despite previous resistance.

In 2019, the Courier Journal said it had requested all records regarding Betts and Woods' involvement in the case, but police officials and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office asserted that they had been turned over to the FBI. 

"But that wasn't true, according to records [that] The Courier Journal recently obtained in the appeal of its open records case," the Courier Journal's Andrew Wolfson wrote Wednesday. "In fact, the department still had at least 738,000 records, which the city allowed to be deleted."

The paper alleges that while some documents found on a "hidden folder" were removed and given to the FBI, Assistant County Attorney Roy Denny confirmed that hundreds of thousands more were completely deleted -- a claim the county attorney’s office disputes. 

In a September affidavit, then-Chief Steve Conrad reiterated that "at the time of the FBI’s adoption of the investigation, the LMPD investigative records … were removed from LMPD to be stored and maintained by the FBI, as it was no longer an LMPD investigation.” 

Fischer fired Conrad on June 1, though he had already announced he would retire following the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.

On Tuesday, former LMPD officer Brett Hankison -- who was involved in the deadly raid on Taylor's apartment -- was named in an unrelated lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault.

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Over the summer, several women came forward to accuse Hankison of similar offenses. 

Fox News has reached out to both the Lousiville Metro Police Department and County Attorney's Office and is awaiting further comment.