Former KY juvenile guard accused of breaking boys’ arms is charged with criminal abuse
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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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A former Kentucky juvenile detention center guard who is accused of breaking the arms of two different boys last Oct. 12 was arrested this week and charged with two counts of second-degree criminal abuse, a felony that carries up to five years in prison.
The McCracken County Sheriff’s Department served an arrest warrant at the county courthouse March 6 on Tyler Grant Lynn, 30, who previously worked as a captain at the state-run McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
Lynn remained in the McCracken County Jail on Friday afternoon in lieu of $10,000 cash bond, according to the jail’s website.
Court records show the McCracken County grand jury indicted Lynn on Feb. 28. It’s not clear why his arrest was delayed for a week.
The commonwealth’s attorney, Donna Dixon, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Lynn, who lives in Paducah, did not return a call seeking comment Friday. His arraignment is scheduled for March 20 in McCracken Circuit Court.
The Herald-Leader reported Jan. 27 that Lynn was involved in two separate violent incidents on the same day last October, leading to broken arms for two much smaller boys held at the juvenile detention center.
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.
Lynn is 5-feet, 10-inches tall and 325 pounds, according to his arrest report.
Internal investigators for the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of Juvenile Justice, said they substantiated “excessive physical contact” by Lynn in both incidents.
He was fired, as were the detention center’s superintendent, Felicia Weatherspoon-Howe, and its deputy superintendent, Eric Lewis.
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.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 4:31 PM.
