Former assistant police chief in Prospect sent messages urging recruit to shoot black people

WARNING: This report contains graphic language.

A former assistant Prospect police chief sent numerous racist messages to a Louisville Metro Police recruit, including one that said if he caught black juveniles smoking marijuana, he should shoot them.

Todd Shaw sent the “highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook messages” to the recruit, according to a letter Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell sent to Prospect Mayor John Evans.

Shaw, who had previously worked 20 years as a Louisville officer, was suspended, then fired, last year from the Prospect force.

O’Connell told Evans that while Shaw and the recruit were discussing a training scenario in which the recruit was to write a paper on "the right thing to do" if he caught three juveniles smoking marijuana, Shaw stated: "Fuck the right thing. If black shoot them.”

Shaw, instructing the recruit how to handle parents of a juvenile caught smoking pot, wrote: “If mom is hot then fuck her. If dad is hot then handcuff him and make him suck my dick. Unless daddy is black. Then shoot him."

Shaw also wrote that "ML King was nothing but a raciast (sic) womanizer ... but because someone shot him, I get a day off with pay each year."

Columns from Joseph Gerth

►Old, poor and black? The city of Prospect doesn't want you

►Local volunteer sheriff's deputy shows why NFL players kneel

►Where will parents turn if Bevin cuts poison control center money?

Shaw was suspended Sept. 1, the day after O'Connell wrote the letter.

Shaw had fought to keep the messages confidential after WDRB and WAVE requested them under the state Open Records Act, but a judge ruled this week that they had to be made public.

"Mr. Shaw held a distinguished career in law enforcement for nearly 30 years," said Attorney Michael Burns, who represents Shaw. "Throughout his career, he treated all people fairly and respectfully regardless of their race."



Asked if Shaw is a racist, Burns said his client was just "playing."



"His Facebook messages were made privately between colleagues and friends who shared the reality of being police officers in today’s culture where police are demonized and demoralized for doing what is required to keep the community safe," Burns said in an email.



"Actions speak louder than words and Mr. Shaw’s actions during his career speak for themselves. He is not a racist in any sense of the word."

“While it is important to note that all the communications either sent or received by Shaw were sent privately, the city finds the content of the messages to be abhorrent, disgusting and reprehensible," Evans, the Prospect mayor, said.

LMPD Chief Steve Conrad said in a statement that he was "disgusted by the shocking and appalling" comments. "Any person who holds these thoughts has no business ever donning a uniform and representing those who have sworn to serve every member of every community. These actions spit in the face of the determined effort hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers put forth to build trust and legitimacy in the communities they serve."

O’Connell told Evans that prosecutors found the Facebook messages while reviewing whether Shaw should be prosecuted for allegedly interfering in the sexual abuse investigation of the Metro Police Explorer Program.

O’Connell said Shaw sent the private Facebook messages in September and October 2016.

“As Jefferson County Attorney, I feel compelled to notify and warn you of Shaw’s deeply offensive and racist statements,” O’Connell told the mayor. “There is no place in police departments for men or women who hold such strongly held prejudices, including recommending shooting people simply because of their race.”

O’Connell also said it was “quite disturbing that Shaw, a senior law enforcement officer with more than 20 years’ experience, was expressing his offensive racist views with a young recruit training to be a Louisville Metro Police officer.”

The county attorney's office said it would move to dismiss two dozen District Court cases in which Shaw was the sole witness, regardless of whether the defendants were black.

O'Connell told reporters Friday that Shaw was terminated and that the recruit — who was not identified — wasn't hired by Louisville Metro.

Rejecting Shaw's bid to keep the messages private, Jefferson Circuit Judge Judith McDonald Burkman ruled Thursday that they revealed "prejudices that bring into question Shaw's integrity as a law enforcement officer" and that public concern was "magnified by his rank.''

O'Connell told reporters that his office supports police officers "but this kind of person walking the streets of this community with a gun or badge should never be tolerated. And they should be weeded out, for all our good."

More headlines

►Kentucky charter schools haven't opened yet. This bill would keep it that way

►Lawmaker wants to keep guns away from people who commit a hate crime

►Mark your calendars – Yuengling is finally coming to Kentucky in March

Shaw, who retired from Louisville Metro as a sergeant before joining the Prospect force, was investigated last fall over allegations that he illegally assisted Kenneth Betts, one of two officers charged with sexually abusing teens who were in the Louisville department’s Explorer Scout program.

Nick Mudd, another lawyer for Shaw, said he was cleared of criminal wrongdoing after being accused of using the National Crime Information Center database to run license plates to help Betts identify officers who were investigating him.

Mudd said Friday that the investigation determined that Shaw had used the database on routine police business “like all officers use it every day."

Betts resigned from the Louisville department in 2014 while an investigation was pending of whether he had improper contact with a female Explorer.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/andreww. Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/darcyc.