Lexington council rejects 3-day suspension of police officer. What’s next?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Council voted 7-7, rejecting officer’s three-day suspension.
- The case now goes back to police department. FOP also has say
- Council has rejected disciplinary recommendations once before.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted narrowly to reject the suspension of a police officer after he was found accessing body camera footage of a shooting involving police.
The council voted 7 to 7 on the recommendation from Police Chief Lawrence Weathers to give officer John McFaull a three-day unpaid suspension. Under council rules, tie votes fail.
It’s not clear what shooting footage McFaull accessed.
Interim Law Commissioner David Barberie said McFaull’s disciplinary case will now return to Weathers and the police department for further review. The police department could come back to the council and make a different recommendation.
The Fraternal Order of Police — the police union — can also weigh in on next steps. Officials with the FOP were not immediately available for comment.
It’s rare for the council to reject the recommendation of Lexington police on disciplinary matters. The council approves all major disciplinary actions of police and firefighters.
However, the council has disagreed with police and fire departments on disciplinary actions in the past.
The council rejected a 48-hour suspension of a Lexington firefighter in 2019 who was arrested for driving under the influence. The fire department later returned to the council with a recommendation of a 120-hour suspension, which council approved.
Access to body-worn camera video
Police monitor who accesses body camera footage, Weathers said.
Weathers said it was discovered that McFaull had accessed body-worn camera footage on July 13 of a shooting. McFaull was not working that day, was not part of the shooting and did not have authority to access the videos, Weathers said.
Police release limited information about disciplinary cases prior to council final approval, per state law and union contracts. Because McFaull’s disciplinary case is not finalized, the records are not subject to the state’s Open Records Act.
Weathers said McFaull’s viewing of the video was not nefarious. The department has many policies and procedures, and people sometimes run afoul of those procedures without realizing it, he said.
“He didn’t mean anything malicious by it,” Weathers said. “But we are still going to address it.”
Some council members voiced concerns about how the department monitors who has access to body camera videos.
Weathers said the department does monitor access, which is how McFaull was caught and faced suspension.
Councilman James Hale said he was concerned someone would want to watch footage of a shooting involving police.
“It just concerns me we have officers with a psyche like that,” Hale said.
McFaull has been an officer since 2019. He received a two-week unpaid suspension in 2023 for engaging in a vehicle pursuit where the subjects were not wanted for a violent felony, according to disciplinary records.
McFaull was told by supervisors not to pursue the vehicle and continued to do so, disciplinary records show.
Council members who voted for the three-day suspension include: Lisa Higgins-Hord, Hannah LeGris, Jennifer Reynolds, Hil Boone, James Brown, Chuck Ellinger and Whitney Elliott Baxter. Those who voted against: Hale, David Sevigny, Liz Sheehan, Amy Beasley, Tyler Morton, Shayla Lynch and Emma Curtis.
This story was originally published October 10, 2025 at 11:16 AM.
