Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/tag/lmpd/page/2/)
Immigrant rights activists in Louisville are ramping up their push for “sanctuary city” policies in the wake of a report that Louisville Metro Police officers have repeatedly assisted federal immigration agents on service calls.
The announcement follows the publication of a KyCIR investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department’s relationship with federal immigration agents.
Entering the country illegally is a civil offense that LMPD officers don’t enforce. But a KyCIR investigation found that LMPD helps ICE with its enforcement when asked, a practice that runs counter to statements from city leaders and in contrast to the “compassionate city” image they project.
Journalists are shielded from search warrants by the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 that requires a subpoena to get a journalist’s work product — audio, video, notes or sources.
Richard Carley Hooten, a longtime felon and focus of our “Man With Many Chances” investigative series, will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Hooten, 50, was sentenced today in Clark County Circuit Court, in Southern Indiana, to a term of life in prison without parole, according to the News and Tribune. Hooten pleaded guilty last month to killing 17-year-old Tara Willenborg in March 2013 in her Clarksville apartment. Last year, we examined how fundamental failures throughout the criminal justice system allowed a six-time felon and serial rapist to continue his predatory habits with little intervention
Decisions by prosecutors and judges put him back on the street instead of behind bars, and at the time of Willenborg’s rape and murder, Hooten was free on bond in connection with a felony gun case. For months before the killing, Clark County authorities failed to arrest Hooten, a registered sex offender, on outstanding warrants.
Longtime felon was focus of recent KyCIR investigation into flaws in the court system that allowed him to roam free and eventually kill.
Richard Carley Hooten had two warrants out for his arrest and a wife who ratted him out to police. Yet for six months, he still evaded capture by Clark County authorities.
An investigation by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that fundamental failures throughout Indiana’s criminal justice system allowed the veteran criminal to continue his predatory habits with little intervention.