LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nearly four years after sexual abuse allegations rocked the LMPD Youth Explorer Program, a third officer is facing charges in connection to the scandal.
Court documents show a federal grand jury has indicted Brad Schuhmann for sexual abuse stemming from an incident in 2010.
The Commonwealth Attorney's office decided not to file state charges against Schuhmann in 2019. Instead, former officers Kenneth Betts and Brandon Wood were prosecuted and are serving time for both state and federal charges connected to the scandal.
Metro Council President David James has been following the case since allegations broke about the mentor program.
"I really don't know why it's taking so long," James said. "I do know that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI had been working on this case, and as far as the timing on this particular case I have no idea."
Pam Darnell, CEO of the child advocacy group Family and Children's Place said she's not surprised by the length of time it takes, saying there is often disbelief with children and even adults first talk about sexual assault or abuse that happened to them in the past.
"Often, children and youth choose not to tell for years and they have their own reasons why," Darnell said. "And often times they're convinced, and they're right, that no one will believe them anyway."
Still Darnell said data consistently shows kids who talk about sexual assault are telling the truth the majority of the time. James said there was a clear cover-up to try and make sure none of those crimes could ever come to light.
"There was some level of cover-up involved in this," James said. "You'll hear the mayor say it wasn't a widespread cover-up, but whether it's widespread or small cover-up, there was a cover-up involved."
Schuhmann resigned from LMPD last week, a spokesperson said. The charge will be a misdemeanor, meaning jail time would be less than a year.
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