LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – Shortly after the firing of two West Buechel police officers, Mayor Rick Richards moved to hire a new officer to be a lieutenant. That officer had pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct in the 1990s and had been fired from the Taylorsville Police Department, facts Richards was unaware of until an I-team investigation.
"When I was talking to him I had no knowledge he had been terminated from Taylorsville, and once Renee mentioned a couple days ago whenever it was, I then kind of remembered some talk I had heard after I was out of office," Richards said.
The mayor had previously told WHAS11 that officer had not started work, but now says he had been sworn in and worked two or three days. Richards says that officer decided to resign.
"He actually talked with the chief and resigned, so I am not exactly sure what the interaction was. I had told the chief that Renee had pointed out some things to me and he told me he wanted to call Todd and talk to Todd. The phone call came back to me that Todd is not going to work for us," Richards said.
We asked the mayor about officers Laura Staley and James Hellinger who fired last week, they say without written notice or a reason why.
"One of them has filed for a grievance thing that allows them to come back in and talk about his termination, so I really can't speak to that. The other officer she was let go without cause because she was on a probationary period and I really don't want to speak to any reason why," Richards said.
Richards says the decision to fire them was not financial. The city is now trying to get badges and service weapons back from those officers.
"They refused to give those to us and we are taking the appropriate steps to make sure they give them back to us because if they don't it's my understanding they could be facing legal charges if they are not returned," Richards said.
Mayor Richards says they will now implement a background checks like LMPD does on their officers to prevent future issues like this.
We also asked the mayor about the estimated $500,000 dollars of West Buechel's money that was unaccounted for, he says they have been finding cash, checks and even extra accounts at different banks so he now believes that number is lower.
