Whistleblower suit over sexual abuse can proceed against KY Juvenile Justice
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- Federal judge lets whistle‑blower suit proceed against KY Juvenile Justice.
- Nurses say they were dismissed after reporting Neil Moorman and meeting with FBI, KSP.
- Judge found Moorman stayed on duty and questioned DJJ's reasons for nurses' firing.
A federal judge has allowed a whistleblower lawsuit to continue against the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice related to the alleged sexual abuse of girls in state custody.
Michelle Ratliff and Betty Tucker were contract nurses at the all-girls Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Newport in 2023 when they said they reported management’s failure to confront Corrections Officer Neil Moorman for inappropriate physical contact with girls held at the center.
Internal investigative reports later obtained by the Herald-Leader showed that the Department of Juvenile Justice allowed Moorman to continue working at the center until May 31, 2023, despite weeks of warnings to managers from his worried colleagues and safety concerns shared by several girls housed there.
As Ratliff and Tucker shared their concerns with the FBI, the Kentucky State Police and the news media, Moorman was fired and eventually charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
Moorman’s trial is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Campbell Circuit Court. He was fined $5,000 last year by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission for “inappropriate physical contact” with a girl who was housed at the juvenile detention center.
However, the nurses said their contracts with the juvenile detention center were terminated as a form of retaliation by the Department of Juvenile Justice, which did not appreciate the bad publicity.
The nurses sued, alleging violations of their First Amendment rights under federal and state whistle-blower protection laws.
On March 31, U.S. Magistrate Judge Candace Smith ruled for the nurses by denying most of the motion for summary judgment requested by the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The nurses’ suit will proceed to trial at a date to be assigned later this year.
The objective facts show that Moorman remained at the juvenile detention center even after “his improper interactions with residents surfaced,” which “supports the suggestion that the DJJ and/or the detention center mismanaged concerns about Moorman,” Smith wrote in her decision.
“Plaintiffs were removed from the detention center just over a month after they met with the FBI and KSP at the end of July 2023,” Smith wrote. The Department of Juvenile Justice did not make a strong case in its motion that the nurses were dismissed for any reasons other than their disclosures about Moorman, Smith wrote.
Among the other chaos going on in the juvenile detention center, Smith added, the superintendent was fired in June 2023 — in the middle of the Moorman controversy — after he showed up for work while intoxicated, Smith added.
This is the second federal court defeat the Department of Juvenile Justice has suffered recently.
Last month, a federal judge ordered the department to provide independent state watchdogs with records about alleged abuse in another of its juvenile detention centers.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove said the Kentucky Protection and Advocacy Services Division is entitled to records about incidents last year involving two teens allegedly harmed by the staff at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia.
The Department of Juvenile Justice had refused to provide records about those incidents to Protection and Advocacy staff unless the youths signed paperwork authorizing the records’ release.
The U.S. Department of Justice also is investigating Kentucky’s juvenile detention facilities for possible civil rights violations following years of critical news stories, a scathing state audit and multiple lawsuits filed by former residents and employees alleging mistreatment of those held in state custody.
