‘350 pounds of terror.’ How a KY juvenile justice guard broke the arms of two boys
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Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
The Herald-Leader has reported on serious problems inside the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice for more than four years.
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The beefy 5-foot, 11-inch juvenile justice guard allegedly boasted to teens in state custody that he was “350 pounds of terror.”
He flexed that frightening strength last Oct. 12 by breaking the left arms of two much smaller teen-aged boys during separate restraints as he twisted the boys’ arms over their heads, public records show.
The snap of one boy’s fracturing left humerus — his upper arm bone — could be heard by the built-in microphone on a security camera mounted 40 feet away. An administrator at the facility who saw the boy’s arm hanging awkwardly later told investigators he assumed the boy was “double-jointed” and not really injured.
The violence occurred inside the McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Paducah, operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, documents obtained by the Herald-Leader under the Kentucky Open Records Act reveal.
The facility has the capacity to hold up to 43 youths whose cases are proceeding through the criminal justice system.
The incidents are another reminder that despite promises of improvement by Gov. Andy Beshear, more stringent discipline of juvenile justice guards and even a federal civil rights investigation, the troubled agency continues to show its failure to protect some of Kentucky’s most vulnerable.
Internal investigators for the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of Juvenile Justice, said they substantiated “excessive physical contact” in both incidents by 30-year-old Correctional Capt. Tyler Grant Lynn, who had worked at the facility for five years.
Neither boy acted physically aggressive before the restraints, although they disobeyed Lynn’s verbal commands, investigators wrote in their reports.
The first boy stood 4-feet, 8-inches and weighed 81 pounds, investigators wrote. The second boy was 5-feet, 4-inches and 140 pounds.
Combined, the boys still weighed 129 pounds less than the 350-pound Lynn.
The boys were given ibuprofen, an over-the-counter pain reliever, after they complained that their broken arms hurt from being twisted so hard.
Security video showed that a nurse at the detention center failed to examine the first boy’s broken arm despite claiming that she did, investigators wrote. After examining the second boy, the nurse said she saw no problem with his broken arm, investigators wrote.
The boys were taken to a Paducah hospital three days later, where the fractures were identified and medical treatment was provided. The second boy needed surgery to put metal plates in his arm to repair the damage, his father told investigators.
Neither Lynn nor an attorney who represents him responded to requests for comment for this story.
The Department of Juvenile Justice is under scrutiny for its mistreatment of youths in state custody.
The U.S. Department of Justice last May launched a civil rights investigation of Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers to look into reports of widespread abuse and neglect revealed by news stories, lawsuits and a state audit.
That federal investigation is ongoing, although it could be delayed by President Donald Trump’s order to halt pending civil rights cases until his new administration can review them.
After the Herald-Leader reported in 2021 on a juvenile justice guard with a history of disciplinary problems who broke a 15-year-old boy’s wrist during a restraint, the Justice Department took action by prosecuting him for one count of deprivation of rights. He was sentenced last October to three years in prison.
Employees fired, police called
Kentucky Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White, a former state prison warden hired 10 months ago, declined to be interviewed for this story.
He replaced former Commissioner Vicki Reed, who resigned after two years on the job following calls for her ouster from state lawmakers and others because of the agency’s continued problems.
In prepared statements to the Herald-Leader, White and the Department of Juvenile Justice said the Oct. 12 incidents were unacceptable.
Lynn was fired, as were the detention center’s superintendent, Felicia Weatherspoon-Howe, and its deputy superintendent, Eric Lewis, state officials said.
Kentucky State Police were notified so they could begin a criminal investigation of the incidents, the agency said.
“Since day one, I have been focused on enhancing training to equip staff with the right tools to keep our juveniles and staff safe, while establishing reentry services so that those released from our custody can go on to achieve success,” White said in his statement to the Herald-Leader.
“If our employees choose to do the wrong thing, they will consistently be held accountable with discipline up to and including dismissal.”
The Herald-Leader has obtained a Dec. 12, 2024, letter from White to Lynn terminating his state employment because of how he handled the restraints two months earlier.
“As supervisory staff, you are expected to set an example for staff and residents,” White told the captain. “Your conduct does not meet the expectations of not only (the McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center) but the department as well.”
No criminal charges have been filed against Lynn, according to public court records.
In an interview with the Herald-Leader, McCracken County Attorney Cade Foster said he believes state police are preparing to take charges related to the incidents directly to the county grand jury for an indictment, after which the case would continue in McCracken Circuit Court.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Donna Dixon, who would prosecute such a case, did not return a call seeking comment.
A third teen-aged boy held at the Paducah facility, not one of the two victims in the case, told investigators that Lynn was known for being aggressive and agitated with youths in custody. He made statements like, “I’m 350 pounds of terror. Nobody is going to mess with me.”
The first broken arm
According to investigators, the first incident on Oct. 12 started at 6:11 p.m.
Youths were locked alone in their cells, yelling unhappily through the doors because they had not been let out, several of them told investigators in interviews later.
The first boy to get his arm broken cursed at staff through his door. That led to a verbal confrontation with Lynn, who told the boy, “Please say something else.” He gestured at the boy with his hands, palms up, fingers waving, as if to invite further comments, investigators wrote.
After ordering the boy’s cell door opened so they could directly face each other, Lynn sang to him, “It’s a hard knock life, poor me!”
Lynn told the boy, now standing in the cell’s doorway, to spin around, face into the cell and start walking backward to him. The boy refused to spin around. Lynn and another guard, charged into the room to restrain him, investigators wrote.
As Lynn tried to put the boy in a “T-stance” restraint, there was “a smacking or popping noise,” they wrote.
The noise was a spiral fracture in the boy’s left humerus, according to a hospital exam three days later.
Video showed the boy whimpered and cried from the pain and begged Lynn to let go of his arm. But other guards who were present — including Lynn’s wife, also a captain at the facility — told investigators later the boy had no complaints about his arm hurting, investigators wrote.
A nurse on duty failed to perform a required post-restraint exam of the boy despite telling officials she did, investigators wrote. She noted no injuries and wrote in her notes the boy had full range of motion in his arm even though the boy said he couldn’t move it.
Lynn and the other guards, who previously were speaking in normal voices, held a whispered discussion after the restraint that could not be understood by the security cameras, investigators wrote.
“Based on the lack of reporting involving the possible injury, and the hushed, whispered tones of the conversation between CAPT Steele-Lynn, CAPT Lynn, and LT Van Meter, it appears staff likely was aware of (the boy’s) injury,” the investigators wrote.
“It would also appear that the staff is either incapable of fulfilling their requirement to accurately report the restraint or any injuries sustained during the restraint, or the staff was deliberately attempting to hide the fact that (the boy) was injured during the improper and unjustified restraint of (the boy),” they wrote.
The second broken arm
The second incident started at 9:48 p.m., investigators wrote.
Lynn was called to a housing unit after a boy who was unhappy about being locked in his cell threatened to kill himself. Lynn was supposed to escort the boy from his cell to the intake area, which had a surveillance camera that could better monitor him.
Walking down the hall with Lynn, the boy reached his hand out to the window of a friend’s cell, where the other youth stood, and said, “Fist bump!”
White’s termination letter to Lynn describes what suddenly happened next.
“Video showed that you simultaneously grabbed (the boy) by his left arm and used your body weight to press him into the wall. (The boy) left his feet momentarily while you slammed him into the door,” White wrote.
“You then continued to press (the boy) into the wall, eventually causing him to ram into a wall-mounted phone, and ending with him pressed against the water fountain. You continued to manipulate (the boy’s) left arm, bending it behind his body and towards his head.”
At no point before or during the restraint did the boy resist Lynn, investigators wrote in their report.
Lynn asked, “Yeah, you done? You’re going to walk right now” while bending the boy’s left arm behind his body and toward his head, investigators wrote.
A loud snapping noise could be heard from up to 40 feet away as the boy’s left humerus bone visibly gave way and his arm bent backward over his head.
The boy yelled out and was in visible pain, investigators wrote. Examining the boy after the restraint, neither Lynn nor the nurse on duty said they could find anything wrong with his arm, now hanging awkwardly.
Lynn told the boy that his arm wasn’t broken, adding, “I cranked your arm; your arm’s sore.”
Lewis, the deputy facility manager, later told investigators he noticed the unusual angle of the boy’s injured arm, but “he just thought some kids were double-jointed,” they wrote in their report.
Lewis told investigators the boy played basketball the day after the restraint, suggesting his arm was at least strong enough to handle a ball, but a review of security video shows that wasn’t accurate, they wrote.
While other youths played basketball the next day, the injured boy stood off to one side by himself in the shade, never touching the ball, they wrote.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 11:56 AM.
