LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An ex-Louisville Metro Police detective is in more legal trouble after a new lawsuit accuses him of using his position as an officer to sexually assault women.
A 22-year-old woman filed the lawsuit claiming she and Brett Hankison met at Tin Roof Bar on Shelbyville Road, where Hankison worked a side job.
She alleges during a 2018 incident that Hankison was in uniform and working security at the bar when he offered her a ride home where she was later sexually assaulted. The woman said the moment left her “physically injured and mentally battered.”
The lawsuit alleges the sexual assaults were a pattern of Hankison’s. It said while he was working at Tin Roof and other establishments, he met several other women in their 20's also befriending them along with adding them to his social media accounts. He allegedly built a network of these unsuspecting women and over time, he insisted on taking some of them home as a “good deed being done by a cop.” He would use their vulnerability in their intoxicated states to sexually assault them.
“When he offered to take her home, she was thrilled. He was a police officer. There was a sense of trust there. She didn’t have to pay for an uber, she was a broke law student,” attorney Sam Aguiar said.
Aguiar is representing the victim in the case and hopes the victim gets justice.
“We hope through this civil litigation that Brett Hankison will be held accountable. That his conduct will be exposed, that it will be made clear that this is something LMPD tolerated, that they had notice of, that they never acted on,” he said. “In civil litigation, you can’t ask for this to have never happened. You can’t go back in time ... and ask that you would have fired Brett Hankison so he didn’t do this to all of these women, so you have to ask for money damages.”
The lawsuit also names former Chief Steve Conrad and multiple Metro Police officers, alleging they have a duty to report their co-workers for wrongful conduct. She said they "took no action to report, investigate or safeguard" against Hankison's abuse.
Hankison is currently wrapped up in legal drama after he was indicted in September on three counts of wanton endangerment for his actions on the night of Breonna Taylor's death in March.
WHAS11 reached out to Louisville Metro Police for comment and a spokesperson said, “we are unable to speak publicly on matters before the court and must cite pending litigation as our reason for not commenting further.”
In a statement, Tin Roof said they are aware of the allegations, saying Hankison was part of a rotating group of off-duty police officers providing service.
"We terminated our relationship with Officer Hankison in the spring and currently use internal security staff only," the statement said. "We find the allegations to be reprehensible, and our company does not tolerate abuse of power or discrimination in any form."
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