A Louisville Metro Police lieutenant is asking a judge to overturn a disciplinary ruling that found he mishandled the aftermath of a fellow officer grabbing a homeless man by the throat outside a downtown hotel. Lt. Caleb Stewart, who leads LMPD’s Downtown Area Patrol, filed the appeal after the Louisville Metro Police Merit Board upheld findings that he violated department policy, though it cut his original 20-day suspension down to 10.
The case traces back to April 2023, when Officer Jay Moss grabbed a homeless man by the throat and took him to the ground outside the downtown Marriott hotel, according to WAVE News. The man had been accused of stealing a soda from the hotel, and he was never charged with a crime. A hotel security officer who witnessed the encounter told Stewart he was concerned the force used was excessive, reporting that the man’s face was turning red and that he appeared not to be getting sufficient air.
Stewart supervised Moss at the time and counseled him for failing to turn on his body camera during the encounter, per the station’s report. Rather than immediately reporting the incident up the chain of command, Stewart solicited opinions from LMPD leadership on whether Moss’s actions needed to be reported at all, and he believed disciplinary action against Moss would be punitive and damage morale, the outlet reported.
Chief Accuses Lieutenant of Failing to Escalate
Then-Assistant Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel accused Stewart of failing to investigate Moss’s actions, report the use of force, and elevate the incident through proper channels, and she suspended him for 20 days without pay in 2024, according to the same account. The Merit Board later found that Stewart had indeed violated department policy in how he handled the use-of-force investigation, though it reduced his suspension to 10 days…