One retired, one fired. Two Lexington police cases raise skepticism about racial justice
When Sarah Williams and April Taylor started helping organize nightly Black Lives Matter protests last spring, they were outraged over the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of police. But they were also marching for justice in a case they’d been following since February 2019, that of now retired Lexington Police Chaplain Donovan Stewart, who while working off duty at the mall, was filmed punching an autistic Black teenager in the head after he’d been restrained.
The internal investigation against Stewart was halted because of a civil lawsuit and a criminal case involving the minor teen which, police said, had to be resolved first. Then in July, Stewart retired from duty (but not before he sued Williams and Taylor for defamatory statements.) The internal investigation was never resolved.
In contrast, another police officer, Jervis Middleton, who is Black, was fired last week because he texted with Williams during those protests, giving her specific taunts to say to certain officers and other information.
To Williams, the difference between the two cases shows exactly why she was marching in the first place.
“There was no wrong that occurred that impeded the operations of the police department,” during the marches, Williams said. But to her, it’s clear why Stewart got to retire and Middleton got fired. “They made their priorities clear.”
Middleton has had a troubled career with the police; he was demoted in 2019 for asking fellow officers to drive by and run license plates numbers of cars that were at a home of a woman he was once in a relationship with. This time around, the city council agreed with the police case against Middleton, voting unanimously to uphold his firing for police misconduct in leaking information. But in the Feb. 18 hearing in front of council — which is what happens when a police officer does not agree to their punishment — it also emerged that Middleton had been a victim of racial taunts, most of which had not been investigated until recently despite the department knowing about the allegations since 2019.
Council members were clearly uneasy about Middleton’s revelations, deciding on Tuesday to request a review of harassment policies across all city departments.
The optics of the two cases — in the middle of a local and national reckoning on racial justice —show why many people in Lexington are suspicious that progress will be made in areas like police brutality.
“Black faith leaders are focused on the flawed process for discipline in the Lexington police department, which is why we’re pushing for an independent citizens’ review board that will allow all officers to be judged by an actual jury of their peers regardless of who they are,” said Rev. David Peoples, pastor of Jabez Missionary Baptist Church and the leader of a group of Black ministers who are urging the city forward on numerous racial issues.
“You could be blind and see there’s discrepancies and inconsistencies,” he added. “There are systematic issues that need to be addressed.”
Another Black faith leader L. Clark Williams of Shiloh Baptist Church reminded me that at the ceremony when Stewart announced his retirement at the Fraternal Order of Police and his lawsuit against Williams and Taylor, he received a standing ovation from other officers. “It’s bad optics,” Williams said. “When you see one officer terminated and you see another use excessive force and his peers celebrating him, it’s unreasonable for anyone to have adequate trust in the process until civilians are a significant part of the process.”
‘Tragedy and travesty’
The group is staying focused on its demands on criminal justice that they identified and that emerged out of the city’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equality in October: Civilian review of police discipline, and a permanent ban on no knock warrants. Some recommendations on police discipline, such as adding civilians to the discipline process are tied up in the collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police. Those talks have just begun.
Mayor Linda Gorton issued a moratorium on no knock warrants, but unlike Louisville, there’s no permanent ban in place. The only bill on the topic moving in Frankfort will curtail but not ban the practice.
Lexington needs to move ahead on this as well.
“It appears that this will have to be addressed on the local level,” Williams said. “A moratorium will not be sufficient — the Breonna Taylor tragedy and travesty have shown the potential cost of no knock warrants is not acceptable.”
The city has made some progress on the commission’s 54 recommendations, such as putting aside money for more body worn cameras, a new program to work with mental health experts on some calls and the tracking of racial data on traffic stops.
But in the end, police and city officials need to move as quickly and transparently on officers like Donovan Stewart as they did on Jervis Middleton. They’ve made big promises to finally achieve social and racial justice in Lexington, and people need to see — through concrete action and on perceived optics — that they’re ready to do more.
Christian Motley, who recently ran for council, said many people he knows are optimistic about the potential change, but the Middleton case raised the specter of “same old, same old.”
“The skepticism will exist because these are problems we’ve been dealing with for decades,” Motley said. “I think it’s possible to hold optimism and skepticism at the same time. That’s something Black folks have done in this country for quite some time.”
