It would have never happened this way if cops weren't involved.

If police were hearing persistent rumors that leaders of a youth organization were having sex with the teens they were overseeing, they would have investigated.

But apparently, that's not the case when the rumors are about the police themselves.

Or at least it wasn't the case when former Lt. Curtis Flaherty was running both the Louisville Metro Police Department's Youth Explorer Program AND the department's Public Integrity Unit, which is supposed to investigate bad cops.

If investigative records released recently are accurate, former Officers Brandon Wood and Kenneth Betts were allowed to victimize teenagers for years despite the fact that at least four police officers had heard rumors and suspected something was up.

Two of the cops had been Explorers themselves, and while they said they never actually witnessed any sexual misconduct, the rumors abounded. One was another adviser in the Explorer program and one was an internal affairs investigator.

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But none of them called for a full-scale investigation of the Youth Explorers Program that Betts and Wood allegedly used to recruit children they could abuse.

No one got to the bottom of this until after Flaherty was removed as the head of the Public Integrity Unit and replaced by an officer with no ties to the Explorer program.

Go ahead and be outraged.

But at whom?

Certainly, if Betts and Wood are guilty of the charges, you should be outraged at them. That's the easy part.

Be outraged at the damage done to the children. Be outraged at the millions of dollars that the city likely will have to pay out to settle lawsuits over Wood's and Betts' alleged behavior.

Just be outraged.

Betts allegedly swapped inappropriate photos with teens — in one case trading police equipment for a nude photo. He allegedly took the teens on "ride-alongs" to secluded spots where he would remove his gun belt, unzip his pants and ask for oral sex.

Wood wasn't quite so brazen. He allegedly invited them to parties where they had access to alcohol and worked his way into their lives. He bantered with them on social media about sex before moving in for the kill, according to the court records.

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A lawyer for Wood has said his client is innocent. Lawyers for Betts have refused to comment.

But the investigative records suggest that Betts and Wood are both predators who stalked their victims in different ways.

They are the easy ones to blame, and they'll likely get what's coming to them. They've been charged with felonies, and if they are convicted, and there is justice, they'll spend years in a state prison.

But, assuming they are guilty, they aren't the only villains here.

What about Flaherty, who has never been charged and who may never be charged?

In 2013 when a 16-year-old girl complained that Betts had sent her inappropriate text messages, Flaherty didn't demand a full investigation; he sent a couple of investigators who apparently didn't even file a report.

There were no recordings made of an interview the investigators did with the girl and her parents. One of the investigators who worked for Flaherty told new police investigators last year that she may have made notes but she can't really remember.

There's not even evidence that they looked into Betts' record, either before or after he joined the force, to see if there were any warning signs.

Not surprisingly, Flaherty's investigators found in this perfunctory investigation that no law was broken.

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In their minds, it raised no suspicions that a police officer overseeing a youth program asked a 16-year-old girl to meet him behind a church.

You have got to be kidding me.

So, with Flaherty's approval, police kicked the case to the department's Professional Standards Unit, which investigates violations of department policy. Betts then resigned in 2014 before that investigation was completed.

Unbelievably, LMPD Chief Steve Conrad then ordered the investigation closed without demanding more information about what Betts had been doing and without ever seeing a completed investigatory report.

A full-scale investigation that called for interviewing current and former Explorer Scouts may have shaken free evidence about not only what Betts stands accused of doing but also about Wood, who remained on the force where he had access to impressionable teens until he was fired this year.

Flaherty and Conrad failed in their duty to protect children. So did every other police officer who had suspicions about Wood and Betts and didn't speak up.

Outrageous.

Joseph Gerth's column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courier-journal.com.