LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Two people are charged in connection with the brutal murders of two Louisville brothers. 25-year-old Brice Rhodes and a juvenile are charged in the stabbing deaths of 14-year-old Larry Ordway and 16-year-old Maurice Gordon Junior.
Gordon was once in a case involving alleged abuse, at the hands of former metro police officer Jonathan Hardin during his time at an at-risk summer youth program in 2014.
Louisville attorney Thomas Clay represented Gordon back in 2014. Clay gave WHAS11 documents that claim former LMPD officer Jonathan Hardin physically and verbally abused Gordon in 2014 during his time at the gentleman’s academy, a summer program.
“The allegations in that lawsuit that he was abused by one of the supervisors there, an officer Hardin who was an employee with LMPD. Not only was Mr. Gordon abused but there were several other scholars at the gentleman’s academy who were abused as well,” Clay explains.
He said Gordon continued to encounter officer Hardin the following semester, “Unfortunately, Maurice Gordon went to Olmsted North where Hardin was a school resource officer there and the next semester after the gentleman's club the abuse continued, because Mr. Hardin singled Maurice Gordon out.”
Clay said he lost touch with Gordon and his family.
This abuse case was eventually dropped and now Gordon has become one of the city's latest homicide victims.
Clay adds, “If that gentleman’s academy would have been a positive experience for him and maybe kept him on the track where he was going to make something positive out of his life, there's no telling."
LMPD said 25-year-old Brice Rhodes is accused of killing the brothers and knew them.
Clay states, “kids are faced with choices and they can make choices that will lead in a positive direction and something productive in their lives or they can make another choice that can lead to destruction and unfortunate that appears that’s' what Maurice Gordon did.”
Two young victims and police even arrested a juvenile along with Rhodes, Clay said he wishes kids who are walking those difficult paths have more help to steer them back in the right direction.
As for that 2014 case against Hardin involving the gentleman’s academy, that has been dismissed.
Hardin does still have criminal charges pending against other students at Olmsted North.