Friday, December 11, 2009
Board Rules Against KSP
KENTUCKY...
After thirteen years of appeals, Thursday, the Kentucky Board of Claims ordered the Kentucky State Police to pay $168,730 in damages to the estate of Lebron Gaither, a teenage police informant who was found beaten, stabbed and shot to death on July 17, 1996, in Casey County, where Jason Derek Noel, who was later convicted of murder, had taken him after he testified about an alleged drug purchase from Noel. The board found detectives violated clearly established rules and failed in their duty to protect Gaither who had been used for drug buys. The board concluded in its ruling that state police "sentenced him to death" by allowing a drug dealer to learn his identity and then using him in a drug buy in which he was kidnapped and killed. In its defense, the department argued Gaither assumed the risk to his own safety when he agreed to become an informant, for which he was paid about $3,150. It also claimed Gaither caused his own death by violating one of the ground rules laid out for the buy - that he not get into Noel's vehicle. State police spokesman, Lt. David Jude, says the department is seeking permission to appeal to Franklin Circuit Court.
After thirteen years of appeals, Thursday, the Kentucky Board of Claims ordered the Kentucky State Police to pay $168,730 in damages to the estate of Lebron Gaither, a teenage police informant who was found beaten, stabbed and shot to death on July 17, 1996, in Casey County, where Jason Derek Noel, who was later convicted of murder, had taken him after he testified about an alleged drug purchase from Noel. The board found detectives violated clearly established rules and failed in their duty to protect Gaither who had been used for drug buys. The board concluded in its ruling that state police "sentenced him to death" by allowing a drug dealer to learn his identity and then using him in a drug buy in which he was kidnapped and killed. In its defense, the department argued Gaither assumed the risk to his own safety when he agreed to become an informant, for which he was paid about $3,150. It also claimed Gaither caused his own death by violating one of the ground rules laid out for the buy - that he not get into Noel's vehicle. State police spokesman, Lt. David Jude, says the department is seeking permission to appeal to Franklin Circuit Court.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:10 AM 
