Here's more proof that no good deed goes unpunished.
In May 2012, Louisville police arrested a man suspected of firing a shotgun into the home of a confidential police informant. Detective Barron Morgan interviewed the suspect, whose brother was facing federal drug charges. Hoping to get his brother a more lenient sentence, the suspect confessed to murdering a man, Kyle Breeden, 14 years earlier.
In November 1998, fishermen had found Breeden's body in a river near Gratz, Kentucky. Breeden had been shot twice in the head. His legs had been tied with a guitar amplifier cord.
The murderer explained that Breeden had stolen $20 from him to buy cocaine. However, he added that he really had killed the man "just to do it."
Various details of the story fit the evidence. For example, the murderer said that he had gone to Breeden's trailer and found him smoking cocaine. An autopsy had found cocaine in Breeden's blood.
The murderer said he had lied to Breeden, inviting him to attend a birthday party at his father's home. On the way, he said, they stopped at a finance company, where Breeden got about $200. This fact, too, checked out. Records established that Breeden had taken out a $250 loan.
The two then drove to an abandoned farmhouse which the murderer told Breeden was his father's. Breeden walked ahead to the gate and likely did not see the pistol aimed at the back of his head. "I blowed his fuckin' brains out," the murderer told police.
He dragged Breeden's body to the side of the house and left. However, he came back later to dispose of the body. He drove to the Gratz bridge and heaved the body, with a 40–pound weight tied on, into the Kentucky River.
Cold case solved! But there was a problem.
A woman was in prison, serving time for the killing.
In 2008, a hairdresser who had known Breeden, entered into a plea bargain with the prosecutor. Susan King, although innocent, got bad legal advice. Rather than chance a whole lifetime in prison, she made a deal which resulted in her spending 6-1/2 years behind bars for manslaughter.
King entered an "Alford plea," which is similar to pleading nolo contendere or "no contest." King did not admit guilt but only agreed that the prosecution had enough evidence to prove she committed the crime.
If King could have afforded a good lawyer and entered a not guilty plea, a jury almost certainly would have acquitted. The murder victim weighed about 180 pounds. King weighs around 100 and has only one leg.
At the time of the murder, King didn't even have a prosthesis. She relied on crutches or used a wheelchair.
Yet somehow, King supposedly had killed Breeden, dragged his body to her car, driven 40 miles, and then heaved it into the river. Really? With a 40–pound weight attached to hold the body down?
In 1998, when Kentucky State Police first investigated the case, King wasn't charged. But 8 years later, another officer got involved. State Police Lieutenant Todd Harwood (who was then a sergeant) became convinced that King was guilty.
According to a lawsuit which King later filed against Harwood, the state police detective misled a grand jury, concealed evidence, and threatened King with the death penalty if she did not plead guilty. Harwood reportedly settled this lawsuit by agreeing to pay King $750,000.
After checking with his supervisor and the local prosecutor, Morgan notified the Kentucky Innocence Project about the confession. With the documentation provided by Morgan, the Innocence Project ultimately secured King's exoneration.
An agency of state government, the Commonwealth's Department of Public Advocacy, had established the Kentucky Innocence Project to do precisely that: To right the terrible wrong which occurs when the justice system finds the wrong person guilty.
So, it should have been okay for Detective Morgan to communicate with this state agency, right?
It should have been. Morgan had served justice and helped right a wrong.
But in fact, Morgan's good deed upset a lot of people, including the state cop who had put King behind bars. State Police Lieutenant Harwood visited the real murderer in jail and, Morgan suspects, convinced him not to cooperate. The murderer recanted his confession.
Harwood has denied telling the murderer to keep his mouth shut. However, we don't know what was said because the lieutenant lost the tape recorder.
Obviously, if Harwood misled the grand jury and tried to intimidate King into a plea deal, he would have a reason to try to squelch a new inquiry. But why didn't his superiors in the State Police support a fresh investigation?
They went tribal, trying to stop the Louisville Police Department from treading on their turf. A state police commander contacted a high–ranking official in the Louisville Police Department and complained about Morgan "interfering" in a state police matter.
Reportedly, the Louisville police chief and the head of the Kentucky State Police were longtime friends. That might help explain the reaction of those in command.
A major in the Louisville department apologized to the state police for Morgan's "sticking his nose" into one of their cases. The major also urged that Morgan be subjected to a disciplinary investigation.
According to Morgan, a lieutenant colonel in the Louisville department left a voicemail message cursing Morgan for providing information to "the other side" – the Kentucky Innocence Project – and ordered him to stop doing so. In a deposition, the lieutenant colonel admitted asking Morgan about the Innocence Project's involvement. Although this official could not recall cursing Morgan, he testified that if he did, it was in a "joking manner."
Morgan also received orders not to appear in court on the King matter unless subpoenaed.
In the past, Morgan's superiors had praised him. A month before the murderer confessed to Morgan, the detective received a letter from the Louisville police chief commending his work on a case involving half a million dollars of cocaine.
But just a few months later, a "departmental reorganization" resulted in Morgan no longer being a narcotics detective. Instead, he was assigned to be a patrol officer on the graveyard shift.
Morgan filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Louisville Police Department. He received a $450,000 settlement, but the department would not return him to the narcotics unit.
In June 2020, the police chief lost his job shortly before his scheduled retirement. However, he wasn't fired for demoting Morgan.
Two months before the chief's ouster, Louisville officers executing a no-knock warrant entered the home of Breonna Taylor, allegedly without identifying themselves. The raid resulted in Taylor's death.
Large protests resulted. So did an order requiring police to wear body cameras.
In late May, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd. The news prompted demonstrations nationwide, including in Louisville.
The governor of Kentucky called out the National Guard to assist the Louisville police. In an incident which took place some distance from downtown, a member of the Guard shot and killed a barbecue cook, David McAtee, who reportedly had fired on the soldiers.
Two of the Louisville officers on the scene either did not have bodycams or had not activated them. The officers were suspended and the police chief removed.
Sometime is wrong with the culture of a police department in which officers ignore an order to wear and use bodycams. And something is very seriously wrong with the culture of a department which punishes a detective for telling a state agency that an innocent woman is in prison.
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