KY juvenile justice worker alleges retaliation for exposing sexual harassment
A lieutenant at the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center is being punished by her bosses for exposing sexual harassment at the state-run facility in Lexington, according to a recent lawsuit.
The Herald-Leader reported in February that Corrections Lt. LaQuetta Black successfully pushed her complaints about sexual harassment to high-ranking state officials in Frankfort after her verbal and written reports were ignored inside the facility for nearly two years.
A state investigator concluded last year that deputy facility manager Charles Scott Harris made sexually inappropriate comments and inappropriately touched Black and other women who worked at the facility.
The investigator also faulted facility manager Jesse Joe Caskey Jr. for failing to act on or pass along complaints about Harris and for his own inappropriate behavior toward Black, such as texting her to ask for a kiss and a photograph of herself.
Harris and Caskey were fired in late 2024 by the Department of Juvenile Justice, which runs the facility.
But the story didn’t end there, Black alleged in a suit she filed Oct. 3 in Fayette Circuit Court.
Instead, Black said, she is now being penalized for speaking out about the women’s harassment and getting the previous management team fired.
Among the unfair acts of reprisal, she said, her work schedule has been changed to prevent her from getting overtime pay; she is singled out for retaliatory complaints and reprimands and told she is “the building’s problem”; and when she requested approval for medical leave to deal with anxiety and depression that’s been aggravated by her work stress, she was told she could accept voluntary reassignment or demotion.
“Defendants subjected plaintiff to sexual harassment for three years; mishandled her complaints; watched as the harm of abuse manifested in her performance and interactions with her superiors, peers and subordinates; and then retaliated against her by imposing disparate discipline and scheduling changes that forced her to either quit, be demoted or be fired,” the suit alleged.
“A reasonable person in plaintiff’s position would feel compelled to resign,” the suit added.
Black is suing the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, the Department of Juvenile Justice and various state officials who run those agencies and her detention center.
She seeks an injunction against further harassment and unspecified damages for compensation.
Black is currently on leave from her job, but she remains employed by the state, said her attorney, Gilbert Comley of Elizabethtown.
“Uniquely, this is a case where the commonwealth has already investigated itself and found its wrongdoing,” Comley said. “I think any time that a whistleblower has to resort to the courts, it simply sends a message that, look ... trust is diminished.”
The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of Juvenile Justice, did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment on the suit.
Black is only the latest person to sue the Department of Juvenile Justice in recent years alleging they are exposing poor conditions inside the troubled state agency. In other pending suits, former employees and residents say youths were held in deplorable conditions and physically abused by staff.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers for possible civil rights violations of the youths held in state custody.
This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM.
