LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Lexington police officer resigned last month after a department review board recommended he be fired over a series of incidents in which supervisors say he was disoriented and impaired on and off duty after consuming the herbal substance kratom, according to internal records.
Officer John Gibbons II submitted his resignation effective Aug. 8, one day after Chief Lawrence Weathers formally recorded it in a personnel order. The resignation came after the Disciplinary Review Board voted on July 28 to recommend termination and before the chief met with Gibbons to discuss discipline, the documents show.
Weathers wrote in a July 2 memorandum that he had already recommended termination following a formal complaint and a Public Integrity Unit investigation. Gibbons had requested the matter be heard by the board; after it recommended firing, he resigned, Weathers noted.
The department’s internal probe, led by Lt. Joe Anderson, centered on an overnight March 29, 2025 incident in which a supervisor found Gibbons on duty in a marked unit “disoriented and confused.” The officer acknowledged consuming kratom that night, according to the investigative summary. Sgt. Phillip Johnson reported locating two empty 12-milliliter bottles of a concentrated kratom extract in Gibbons’ glove box and relieved him of duty pending testing. A standard drug and alcohol screen came back negative, but the provider later told the department it does not test for legal substances such as kratom, the memo states…