FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a Frankfort woman against a former Frankfort police detective, LEX 18 Investigates has learned.
Kimberly Myers filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleging civil rights violations, battery, and malicious prosecution by former officer Larry Guss Curtis. The City of Frankfort and its former police chief were also defendants in the case.
The settlement agreement, obtained by LEX 18, reveals that Myers will receive $350,000 from Curtis and the City of Frankfort.
The lawsuit stems from a July 7, 2023, incident captured on police body camera video. The footage shows Curtis entering Myers' home without a warrant. When questioned by Myers about the warrant, Curtis admitted he did not have one and forcibly entered the home, resulting in an injury to Myers' foot.
Franklin County District Court Judge Kathy Mangeot, during a previous hearing, noted troubling discrepancies between the body camera footage and the citation written by Curtis in Myers' criminal case.
"The body camera footage instead shows Mr. Curtis barging through the front door, eventually forcing himself entirely into the residence, placing his hands on the defendant, twisting her arm backward, and immediately instructing the accompanying uniformed officer to handcuff her after she merely asked him if he had a warrant to enter her home," Mangeot said.
These inconsistencies led Mangeot to dismiss the charges against Myers.
"After reviewing the body cam footage multiple times thinking surely to goodness I had missed something, it instead became glaringly apparent to me that Mr. Curtis had zero respect for the Constitution for which he took an oath and swore to uphold," Mangeot stated during the hearing.
Weeks before that incident, Curtis allegedly asked another police agency outside his jurisdiction to go talk to a man in Nicholasville about a criminal investigation. However, when Nicholasville Police arrived, they found that Curtis was trying to collect money from the man over a personal matter.
Curtis resigned from the Frankfort Police Department in 2023, just weeks after the incident with Myers. He subsequently joined the Boyle County Sheriff's Office but was terminated after a few months.
Myers continues to cope and push for more police oversight. "You know, it's been very traumatizing," recalled Myers. "I'm already a survivor of domestic violence and then to have this happen from somebody that is supposed to be serving and protecting."
