POLICE CORRUPTION LAWSUITS COULD COST LOUISVILLE MILLIONS

10 People Claim Their Civil Rights Were Violated

Almost a year after former Metro Narcotics partners Mark Watson and
Christie Richardson were tried criminally in Jefferson County's
largest police scandal in decades, the fallout is far from over.

Even as the officers serve their sentences - he's in prison; she's on
probation - six civil suits, involving 10 people who were cited or had
property seized by the officers, are pending in Jefferson Circuit
Court and U.S. District Court, alleging the detectives and local
government violated citizens' civil rights when charging them with
trumped-up charges.

At least eight of the 10 people suing had been jailed by the officers;
nine of the 10 either had charges against them dismissed or
convictions overturned. Sentences ranged from probation to prison.

One plaintiff, Robert Hardin, said his arrest on drug charges "was a
nightmare." His conviction ultimately was set aside.

The cases could cost Louisville metro government millions of dollars,
based on verdicts and settlements in other police corruption cases
throughout the country in the last several years. For example, Los
Angeles agreed to pay $2.8million in 2002 to settle with seven victims
of a police corruption scandal, and in 2000, Miami paid $2.5million to
settle a civil case tied to one of a series of shootings where
officers were accused of lying and tampering with evidence.

Locally, Hardin's suit is the only one so far to specify the amount of
damages sought; it seeks $5million.

Each suit claims that police supervisors knew or should have known
what the detectives were doing.

Metro government lawyers have filed responses alleging that the
detectives acted outside their duties, which they contend absolves the
government of all responsibility. The former detectives, in their
responses, deny any violation of constitutional rights and say they
were acting under the scope of their employment.

Watson is serving a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to 299
felonies and three misdemeanors. The charges involve using photocopied
judges' signatures on search warrants and illegal invasions of
people's homes using the faked documents.

A Jefferson Circuit Court jury found Richardson guilty in February of
20 felony charges, including 19 counts of tampering with public
records and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument.
The jury also found her guilty of official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
She is on probation.

Since the investigation of the officers began in early 2002,
prosecutors have dismissed or set aside convictions in more than 50
cases in which Watson and Richardson were involved. Prosecutors said
that review continues. Richardson began in Metro Narcotics in 1995;
Watson in 1998.

Drug unit revamped

Shortly after Richardson's trial, Metro Police Chief Robert White
restructured the now-merged city-county police department, including
Metro Narcotics, assigning street-level drug patrols to individual
districts and ordering the revamped narcotics unit to address larger
trafficking operations and vice.

White said that while that restructuring was not directly in response
to Watson and Richardson, other changes were, including a stipulation
that narcotics sergeants supervise no more than six detectives,
compared with as many as 10 previously. Ongoing meetings among
narcotics supervisors also ensure that cases are being moved along,
White said.

One of the issues raised during the criminal investigation of Watson
and Richardson was the failure to adhere to policies that required
supervisors to witness some payments involving informants. Having
fewer detectives under a sergeant allows for better oversight of such
policies, White said.

The chances of a scandal like Watson and Richardson's occurring again
are "very remote," White said.

But David James, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police,
said he doesn't believe decentralization has worked, arguing that drug
traffickers do not adhere to police district boundaries.

"Narcotics is one of the leading driving factors of crime in this
community," James said.

A harrowing arrest

Hardin, one of those whose suits is filed in federal court, said his
arrest was harrowing.

"You never forget it," Hardin said. "I think about it every
day."

Hardin was charged with drug trafficking and other offenses in 1998
after Watson and other detectives searched his home on Blue Lick Road,
where he still lives, and said they found a small amount of crack
cocaine and Valium.

Hardin suffered chest pains during his arrest and was hospitalized. A
drug screen there showed he was drug-free, according to records he
produced in court.

Hardin, now 45, maintains the drugs were planted.

Watson denied any impropriety when Hardin requested that a judge
suppress the evidence in his case. After the judge refused, Hardin
entered an Alford plea, maintaining his innocence but acknowledging
that enough evidence existed to convict him. That plea also wrapped up
drug charges he faced in another case.

He was sentenced to eight years' probation.

Hardin said he believes the governments behind Metro Narcotics - now
the merged metro government - should be held accountable.

"Justice has not been served," he said.

Most of the lawsuits now pending involve allegations by one person,
although one filed by four plaintiffs in Jefferson Circuit Court is
seeking class-action status. And an attorney for the plaintiff in the
other Jefferson Circuit Court case, George Spencer III, said he wants
his case merged with that one.

Spencer's drug and drug paraphernalia conviction following his 1999
arrest was set aside in August 2002. His suit claims that the officers
entered his apartment unlawfully with an invalid search warrant.

Like Hardin, Spencer had entered an Alford plea, in which he
acknowledged the evidence was sufficient to produce a guilty verdict
but maintained his innocence.

The four cases in U.S. District Court have all been placed on the
docket of one judge, according to court orders. Besides Hardin, the
plaintiffs in the other three federal suits are:

Walter Elliott and his mother, Connie, who say Watson and Richardson
forged a judge's signature and fabricated a search warrant to enter
their West Muhammad Ali Boulevard apartment in January 2000. Walter
Elliott later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking; the conviction was
set aside in March 2002. Charges against his mother were dismissed,
the suit says.

Bruce Northington, who says that Watson and Richardson illegally
entered his home in January 2002 with a bogus search warrant. The suit
says Watson took $6,900 from Northington's safe. Northington's suit
says he went to the FBI and shortly after that the detectives were
arrested.

Roney Grigsby, who says that Watson and Richardson used a forged
warrant in October 1999 to enter a Heywood Avenue residence and
confiscate $285 and three guns belonging to Grigsby. Criminal charges
were dismissed, but Grigsby says he never got the property back. Bill
Patteson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County attorney's office,
which is defending the suits, would not comment on specific cases. But
he said any judgments against or settlements by the metro government
likely would be covered by insurance.

Metro government "is equipped and is structured to deal with these
situations without an undue amount of concern," he said.

Officer files suit

Attorneys in most of the cases said they expect their lawsuits to be
resolved this year. Attorneys began deposing Watson Dec. 4, said
Hardin's lawyer, William Yesowitch.

Watson, who is acting as his own lawyer, declined an interview request
made through prison officials.

Richardson, meanwhile, has filed her own suit against metro government
and Fraternal Order of Police insurers, trying to force them to help
pay for her civil defense.

Richardson's attorney in the civil cases, J. Key Schoen, said his
client maintains that Watson is to blame for any civil-rights violations.

"From everything I can tell, she's innocent, and that's all the more
reason a defense should be provided to her," he said.

Richardson has declined to comment since the scandal broke. She did
not respond to a telephone message left at her home.

A New York University professor familiar with civil-rights litigation
said the cases against the government will turn on whether plaintiffs
can prove that the officers' conduct amounted to "a systemic violation
of constitutional rights" or whether the policies and supervision
allowed it to occur.

"Then, cities have been held liable for very substantial amounts under
those circumstances," said Burt Neuborne, who also is former president
of the American Civil Liberties Union.

White said that while most police officers knew that civil cases
inevitably would follow the criminal prosecution of Watson and
Richardson, it is painful to reopen old wounds.

"No one wants to relive this," he said.