Kentucky State Police officer pleads guilty in case involving illegal search
A Kentucky State Police trooper charged in an excessive force case has admitted to illegally entering someone’s home without a warrant.
Jeremy Elliotte pleaded guilty to a charge of depriving people in the home of the right to be free from an unreasonable search.
Elliotte was initially charged with assaulting a man and with giving internal KSP investigators false information about the incident. Prosecutors plan to drop those charges as part of Elliotte’s plea, according to court records.
Charges in the case remain pending against another trooper, Michael Howell, and former trooper Derrek Lovett.
The case against the three stems from an incident in August 2020 in which someone set fire to a house Lovett was building in Whitley County, according to the court record.
Several other officers, including Elliotte and Howell, came to help investigate the crime.
Lovett named a potential suspect who had made threatening comments after Lovett arrested him.
The man, identified only as C.M. in court records, lied to police when they talked to him, according to Elliotte’s plea.
Despite that, the police decided to talk to another man, Bradley Hamblin, about the arson.
Several state police officers went to a house where they thought Hamblin was staying, and Hamblin came to the door when Elliotte knocked.
The officers did not have a warrant to arrest Hamblin or to search the property, and Elliotte knew it wasn’t legal for him to enter the house in the absence of a warrant, permission or an urgent situation that would justify going in.
Elliotte went into the house anyway, followed by several other officers, according to the court record.
The charge of violating rights through an illegal search related to people besides Hamblin in the house.
Elliotte and other officers took Hamblin outside, where he sustained injuries. Elliotte’s plea agreement did not include details about the injuries.
However, Hamblin alleged in a separate civil lawsuit that officers beat him after he was handcuffed, breaking bones in his face and causing a head injury, and threatened further harm unless he said he resisted arrest.
Lovett was charged along with Elliotte in the alleged assault on Hamblin.
That charge is still pending against Lovett, and he and Howell also face charges of giving false information to Kentucky State Police officers investigating the use of force against Hamblin.
The officers allegedly agreed to say, falsely, that Hamblin resisted arrest, according to the indictment.
The camera inside Howell’s police cruiser picked up Howell talking about the incident on his cell phone, according to the court record.
The indictment said Howell described the use of force as “pretty bad.”
As part of his plea, Elliotte agreed to surrender his law-enforcement certification and not seek or accept a job as a police officer, jailer or correctional officer.
The charge he pleaded guilty to has a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
Elliotte pleaded guilty on February 6 in federal court in London. U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom scheduled him to be sentenced in June.
Capt. Paul Blanton, spokesman for Kentucky State Police, said in a statement to the Herald-Leader that the agency has cooperated with federal authorities in the investigation of the three troopers.
KSP suspended the three after learning of the incident. Lovett resigned and Elliotte and Howell have not performed official duties since, Blanton said.
The agency issued letters of intent to fire Elliotte and Howell and both are suspended without pay, but under state law they have the right to request administrative hearings until the criminal case is resolved, Blanton said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2024 at 12:35 PM.
