WAVE 3 investigative reporter Natalia Martinez describes a recording she obtained from a source where LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel was made aware of sexual harrasement allegations between ranking officers. The recording seems to have triggered today's press conference where Mayor Greenberg suspended Chief Gwinn-Villaroel with pay and began an investigation into her mishandling of the events...
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Here's Mayor Greenberg. Just a littlewhile ago, I have placed Chief Jacqueline
Gwynn Bill Roel on administrative leave.I made this decision following concerns recently brought
to my attention regarding how Chief gwynBill Roel handled a workplace sexual harassment allegation
(00:21):
involving LMPD officers. We have wavedThree News investigative reporter Natalia Martinez online with
us. Hey Natalia, welcome back, Hi Terry, how are you?
Everything's groovy here? Listen. Iknow that you have some more insight into
what exactly has occurred and why thechief of police is on administrative leave.
(00:43):
Tell me more. I do sothis afternoon at noon, I sent an
email over to llenpd's spokesperson and theirpublic information office to ask them about a
recording that I had obtained through asource in which Chief Jacqueline Villa Roel is
(01:03):
admonishing her majors. It's a staffmeeting between her and her majors, and
during that meeting, she starts saying, you know, I can't have majors
who are laxed. I need youon board, and basically I need your
loyalty. If you can't if youhave a problem with me, then leave
(01:25):
your badge. You've got until fiveo'clock today, basically walk out the door.
And then she continues to say,and if you've got a problem working
with another fellow major, then youneed to tell me right now. And
she goes around the room, callingeach one of the majors one by one
by name, until she gets toMajor Shannon Lauter of the first Division,
(01:47):
that's the downtown area of Louisville,and Major latter says, Keith, actually,
I do have a problem. Icannot work with Major Brian Krueger.
So Major Krueger was the head ofinternal investigations for LMPD. Shannon says in
(02:07):
this recording, he sexually harassed me. There is a silence for twenty one
seconds, and then the chief continuesto call on the other Majors that were
left in the room. Fifty nineseconds go by since the moment that Shannon
Lawter first accuses Krueger of this,and the Chief says, Brian Krueger is
(02:31):
your new lieutenant colonel. So withina minute of this major saying hey,
I was you know, she claimsI was sexually harassed, the Chief promotes
the person who she is making thisclaim against. The story was going to
(02:52):
come out today At five and six. I called their spokesperson, Angela Ingram,
left a message, emailed them.At first I was told I was
going to get a response. Neverdid called back again or emailed again saying
hey, I'm just waiting with yourresponse. Nothing. Then we get an
email from the Mayor's office saying impromptumeeting a press conference by point thirty at
(03:15):
the gallery, and then we hearhim say she's on administrative leaves. I
take allegations of sexual harassment very seriously. So I asked the mayor if you
know he was aware of the recording. He said no, but I do
mention in that email that I didhave a recording and we intended on airing
(03:36):
it. So that is the contextin which all of this came up.
So you triggered this action, youryour reports and letting them, letting them
know in advance that you were goingto report this triggered all this response today.
Well, as far as I know, they could have planned to have
done this, you know, daysago. Yeah, but it was hastily
(04:00):
call him to tell you. Weall got to notice at four thirty seven
pm that there would be a pressconference at five thirty mm hmm, yeah,
that that's very rare, as youas you and I both know that
is very rare. Yeah, Imean, I think it's a very bad
look. If you know, theDJ is in town. They are here
physically. And one of the thingsthat the DOJ said during their previous investigation
(04:26):
is that LMPD has a history ofnot taking accusations of sexual harassment seriously.
And this, according to the attorneyfor Shannon Lawd, it was an example
of that and I had already gottenonce I got a copy of the recording
from a source, I reached outto Laughterer's attorney through the normal course of
(04:49):
action and asked, you know,for a response, and he said,
you know, there's what we sawin the chief is very concerning, very
troubling, and then a few hourslater she's placed on admin leave. You
do get a bad look, though, I will say, when a department
gets to the point where these typesof meetings are leaked, it's a bad
(05:15):
it's a bad look, and especiallywhen you're talking about sexual harassment and the
DJ is in town, right,But your first tweet was that you thought
the chief was going to be out. And then later you tweeted that the
chief is on administrative leave. Sowhat made you think? What made you
think that the chief was out?Well, that's the terminology that I got
(05:42):
from a source who I would havethat I do trust very much. Yeah,
and knew, but by out,you know, I I guess they
meant the admin leave. But youknow, you can't just it's very rare
that he would say, hey,you're fired. Well, and he can't
(06:02):
do that because he has to letthis investigation play out, perhaps right,
yes, of course, because otherwiseyou would pay out. There's no due
process, right, So, andmaybe the chief has a defense for the
way that she reacted. Honestly,if I from experience, if I were
to guess what I expected led tosay, or would i've maybe if I
(06:25):
were their PR person, what Iwould have said is she misspoke, she
was caught off guard. You knowit is going to be investigated. We
do take allegations of sexual harassment veryseriously. Boom, you know, that's
what I would have expected at least, But it was radio silence after I
sent that email much and then whenI started calling around to see if you
(06:47):
know what this what this press conferencecould be with this major announcement, no
one knew anything, which that toldme it was something. Indeed, also
a former FBI agent, David Bayer, is conducting this investigation into this particular
incident. But this police chief hashad challenges in many other areas as we
(07:10):
know, so by placing her onadministrative leave, this could be the next
step before actually firing her. Theybumped up Paul Humphrey to acting chief.
That's all correct, right, correct, yes, yes, And the chief
Chief, Lil Roel has had otherbumps in the road that you know.
We showed when she was testifying ina recent case where she says that she
(07:33):
misspoke. There was a lot ofcriticism whether you know whether or not she
had a body camera. She saidno, she didn't, but then there
was images and video of her wearinga body camera. But there was criticism
that she should have been placed onthe Brady list. Then that prompted me
to start looking into her file.That's when we found this case from twenty
(07:56):
years ago, albeit where she wasrummaging through a fellow detective's desk looking for
a criminal investigative file on her brotherin law. If that would have happened
here, and if that would havehappened today, I know that that would
have most likely triggered some type ofbigger investigation than a professional standards unit investigation.
(08:22):
You can't do that, right.And so I was told that the
mayor's office did not know about that, that when he took over, you
know, the their office had assumedthat the vetting had already taken place.
I don't know for sure if thatis true, but I can't tell you
(08:43):
that it was. It was abig slap in the face when we showed
that, you know, there werethese allegations, not allegations, it was
confirmed she was on video rummaging toa detective desk for her family member's criminal
file. Yeah, I remember allthose. We're at a time I'm now
n Tellia. So I appreciate theinsight you were able to add to the
(09:03):
context. You're able to add tothis story, and I know you can
see more, all right, seemore at eleven on Wave three. Gotcha,
thanks, Natalia. Natalia Martinez fromWave three News
Here's Mayor Greenberg. Just a littlewhile ago, I have placed Chief Jacqueline
Gwynn Bill Roel on administrative leave.I made this decision following concerns recently brought
to my attention regarding how Chief gwynBill Roel handled a workplace sexual harassment allegation
(00:21):
involving LMPD officers. We have wavedThree News investigative reporter Natalia Martinez online with
us. Hey Natalia, welcome back, Hi Terry, how are you?
Everything's groovy here? Listen. Iknow that you have some more insight into
what exactly has occurred and why thechief of police is on administrative leave.
(00:43):
Tell me more. I do sothis afternoon at noon, I sent an
email over to llenpd's spokesperson and theirpublic information office to ask them about a
recording that I had obtained through asource in which Chief Jacqueline Villa Roel is
(01:03):
admonishing her majors. It's a staffmeeting between her and her majors, and
during that meeting, she starts saying, you know, I can't have majors
who are laxed. I need youon board, and basically I need your
loyalty. If you can't if youhave a problem with me, then leave
(01:25):
your badge. You've got until fiveo'clock today, basically walk out the door.
And then she continues to say,and if you've got a problem working
with another fellow major, then youneed to tell me right now. And
she goes around the room, callingeach one of the majors one by one
by name, until she gets toMajor Shannon Lauter of the first Division,
(01:47):
that's the downtown area of Louisville,and Major latter says, Keith, actually,
I do have a problem. Icannot work with Major Brian Krueger.
So Major Krueger was the head ofinternal investigations for LMPD. Shannon says in
(02:07):
this recording, he sexually harassed me. There is a silence for twenty one
seconds, and then the chief continuesto call on the other Majors that were
left in the room. Fifty nineseconds go by since the moment that Shannon
Lawter first accuses Krueger of this,and the Chief says, Brian Krueger is
(02:31):
your new lieutenant colonel. So withina minute of this major saying hey,
I was you know, she claimsI was sexually harassed, the Chief promotes
the person who she is making thisclaim against. The story was going to
(02:52):
come out today At five and six. I called their spokesperson, Angela Ingram,
left a message, emailed them.At first I was told I was
going to get a response. Neverdid called back again or emailed again saying
hey, I'm just waiting with yourresponse. Nothing. Then we get an
email from the Mayor's office saying impromptumeeting a press conference by point thirty at
(03:15):
the gallery, and then we hearhim say she's on administrative leaves. I
take allegations of sexual harassment very seriously. So I asked the mayor if you
know he was aware of the recording. He said no, but I do
mention in that email that I didhave a recording and we intended on airing
(03:36):
it. So that is the contextin which all of this came up.
So you triggered this action, youryour reports and letting them, letting them
know in advance that you were goingto report this triggered all this response today.
Well, as far as I know, they could have planned to have
done this, you know, daysago. Yeah, but it was hastily
(04:00):
call him to tell you. Weall got to notice at four thirty seven
pm that there would be a pressconference at five thirty mm hmm, yeah,
that that's very rare, as youas you and I both know that
is very rare. Yeah, Imean, I think it's a very bad
look. If you know, theDJ is in town. They are here
physically. And one of the thingsthat the DOJ said during their previous investigation
(04:26):
is that LMPD has a history ofnot taking accusations of sexual harassment seriously.
And this, according to the attorneyfor Shannon Lawd, it was an example
of that and I had already gottenonce I got a copy of the recording
from a source, I reached outto Laughterer's attorney through the normal course of
(04:49):
action and asked, you know,for a response, and he said,
you know, there's what we sawin the chief is very concerning, very
troubling, and then a few hourslater she's placed on admin leave. You
do get a bad look, though, I will say, when a department
gets to the point where these typesof meetings are leaked, it's a bad
(05:15):
it's a bad look, and especiallywhen you're talking about sexual harassment and the
DJ is in town, right,But your first tweet was that you thought
the chief was going to be out. And then later you tweeted that the
chief is on administrative leave. Sowhat made you think? What made you
think that the chief was out?Well, that's the terminology that I got
(05:42):
from a source who I would havethat I do trust very much. Yeah,
and knew, but by out,you know, I I guess they
meant the admin leave. But youknow, you can't just it's very rare
that he would say, hey,you're fired. Well, and he can't
(06:02):
do that because he has to letthis investigation play out, perhaps right,
yes, of course, because otherwiseyou would pay out. There's no due
process, right, So, andmaybe the chief has a defense for the
way that she reacted. Honestly,if I from experience, if I were
to guess what I expected led tosay, or would i've maybe if I
(06:25):
were their PR person, what Iwould have said is she misspoke, she
was caught off guard. You knowit is going to be investigated. We
do take allegations of sexual harassment veryseriously. Boom, you know, that's
what I would have expected at least, But it was radio silence after I
sent that email much and then whenI started calling around to see if you
(06:47):
know what this what this press conferencecould be with this major announcement, no
one knew anything, which that toldme it was something. Indeed, also
a former FBI agent, David Bayer, is conducting this investigation into this particular
incident. But this police chief hashad challenges in many other areas as we
(07:10):
know, so by placing her onadministrative leave, this could be the next
step before actually firing her. Theybumped up Paul Humphrey to acting chief.
That's all correct, right, correct, yes, yes, And the chief
Chief, Lil Roel has had otherbumps in the road that you know.
We showed when she was testifying ina recent case where she says that she
(07:33):
misspoke. There was a lot ofcriticism whether you know whether or not she
had a body camera. She saidno, she didn't, but then there
was images and video of her wearinga body camera. But there was criticism
that she should have been placed onthe Brady list. Then that prompted me
to start looking into her file.That's when we found this case from twenty
(07:56):
years ago, albeit where she wasrummaging through a fellow detective's desk looking for
a criminal investigative file on her brotherin law. If that would have happened
here, and if that would havehappened today, I know that that would
have most likely triggered some type ofbigger investigation than a professional standards unit investigation.
(08:22):
You can't do that, right.And so I was told that the
mayor's office did not know about that, that when he took over, you
know, the their office had assumedthat the vetting had already taken place.
I don't know for sure if thatis true, but I can't tell you
(08:43):
that it was. It was abig slap in the face when we showed
that, you know, there werethese allegations, not allegations, it was
confirmed she was on video rummaging toa detective desk for her family member's criminal
file. Yeah, I remember allthose. We're at a time I'm now
n Tellia. So I appreciate theinsight you were able to add to the
(09:03):
context. You're able to add tothis story, and I know you can
see more, all right, seemore at eleven on Wave three. Gotcha,
thanks, Natalia. Natalia Martinez fromWave three News
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