LEXINGTON, Ky. – A federal judge has thrown out a Lexington man’s civil-rights lawsuit against a city homicide detective, ruling police had enough evidence to arrest him in a 2021 shooting even though a grand jury later declined to indict.
In a memorandum opinion signed Sept. 29, 2025, U.S. District Judge Gregory F. VanTatenhove granted summary judgment to Detective Kristyn Klingshirn, dismissing Kenneth Wadkins’ claim that she pursued him without probable cause in the killing of Wesley Brown. Wadkins was jailed for about two months after his 2022 arrest; he was released when a grand jury refused to charge him.
Wadkins alleged Klingshirn violated his Fourth Amendment rights by initiating a case built on false or misleading statements and by omitting facts pointing to other suspects. But the court found probable cause existed to arrest and to start criminal proceedings, citing multiple strands of information outlined in the detective’s complaint: an eyewitness who identified Wadkins by the street name “Ghost,” tips to Crime Stoppers naming “Ghost” as the shooter, the victim’s sister linking Wadkins to that nickname and a possible motive, and geofence data placing Wadkins on Breckenridge Street at the time of the shooting…