Lexington woman reaches lawsuit settlement with city, police for $1.2 million
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- Lexington settled for $1.2M after lawsuit over officer’s violent 2022 arrest.
- Bodycam shows officer’s actions; lawyer for victim cited lack of crisis training
- Victim suffered a broken leg, had X‑ray later at jail and underwent multiple surgeries.
A Lexington woman who is homeless has settled a lawsuit with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, the Lexington Police Department and an officer who violently arrested her outside Saint Joseph East Hospital in March 2022 for $1.2 million, according to court records and a spokesperson for the city.
Linda Trapp, 65, filed the lawsuit in Fayette Circuit Court in March 2023, one year after the incident. She claimed she was the victim of wrongful arrest, emotional injury, severe bodily injuries and delayed medical treatment the night of the incident.
The lawsuit was dismissed Jan. 20, one week after the defendants said they had reached “a tentative resolution of all claims” in the lawsuit, according to court documents. Susan Straub, a spokeswoman for the city, said the settlement amount was $1.2 million.
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Body camera footage from Lexington police officer Myles Foster, who responded to the hospital and was a defendant in the lawsuit, shows how the incident unfolded from the time Trapp was in a hospital bed to when she was forcibly detained by officers outside the facility. Trapp suffered a broken leg, an injury that will permanently affect her, according to her attorney, John Reynolds.
The case was about Foster’s lack of crisis intervention training, and his department’s failure to supervise him, Reynolds said. If Foster had better crisis intervention training, Reynolds believes the incident would not have happened.
“One can tell that as soon as officer Foster entered the hospital room, the situation was bad,” Reynolds said. “He basically predetermined that that interaction was going to end poorly by his behavior and his statements as soon as he entered the room.”
Foster retired from Lexington police on occupational disability in July 2024. Reynolds said Foster’s disability was unrelated to the incident with Trapp.
Straub had no additional comment on the settlement. The attorney representing the defendants, Jason Morgan, directed the Herald-Leader to Straub for comment.
What happened the night of the arrest
Trapp arrived at the hospital for a head injury after a fall on March 22, 2022, but needed a COVID-19 test in order to return to the Catholic Action Center where she was staying, according to her lawsuit.
Hospital staff denied Trapp a test and called the police to have her removed, the lawsuit said. When Trapp was walking away from the hospital, officers shouted disparaging comments at Trapp and shooed her towards the road.
“Go find ya a tree branch or something,” Foster can be heard saying on body camera footage. “There’s some good trees over there downtown.” The emergency room employee echoed the statement, telling Trapp to “go get ya a tree branch.”
Trapp called the officer a liar, and then the officer was seen quickly approaching Trapp. Foster ran toward her and took Trapp to the ground.
Trapp immediately complained of injuries to her knee, and begged for an x-ray to be done, according to body camera footage.
Trapp alleged in the lawsuit that once she was taken back inside the hospital, she pleaded for an x-ray from Dr. Timothy Anderson, who is shown on body camera footage examining Trapp for about 19 seconds before saying, “You can do that (x-ray) with your doctor.”
Anderson then walked away. Anderson and Southeastern Emergency Physicians were also named as part of the lawsuit but claims against Anderson were dismissed in May 2024, according to court documents.
Trapp was taken to the Fayette County Detention Center and an x-ray was done, which showed she had “acute proximal tibia/fibula fractures with malalignment,” according to court documents. She went to UK Hospital, where she had multiple surgeries to treat her injuries, according to the lawsuit.
