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A federal court jury acquitted two former Kentucky State Police officers accused in an excessive force case, according to their attorneys.
The jury returned a verdict of not guilty Friday evening for Derrek Lovett and Michael Logan Howell after deliberating for about eight hours, said Greg Ousley, a Somerset attorney who represented Lovett.
Ousley said Lovett was adamant that he had done nothing wrong.
“He literally put his faith in the criminal justice system . . . and in this case it came out the way it should have,” Ousley said of his client. “He can go on with his life now.”
The case dated to August 2020, when someone started a fire at a house Lovett was having built in Whitley County.
Howell, Lovett and Jeremy Elliotte were among the officers who went looking for a man named Bradley Hamblin who police wanted to talk to about the arson.
When they got to the house where Hamblin was staying, Elliotte went to the door. When Hamblin came to the door, Elliotte stepped a short distance inside and brought him out, according to the court record.
Hamblin later claimed in a lawsuit that officers beat him after he was handcuffed, breaking bones in his face and causing a head injury.
A federal grand jury charged that Elliotte and Lovett violated Hamblin’s Constitutional rights by using excessive force on him.
The grand jury charged all three officers with conspiracy to come up with a false story to cover up the assault, also with lying about what happened.
The camera inside Howell’s police cruiser picked up audio from his cell phone calls with Elliotte and other officers after the incident, including Howell saying the use of force against Hamblin was “pretty bad,” according to the indictment.
Elliotte pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of going into the house where Hamblin was without a warrant, which was a violation of the right of other people in the house to not be subjected to unreasonable search.
The government moved to drop other charges against Elliotte as part of his plea.
U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom sentenced Elliotte in June to six months in jail followed by six months of home detention.
Howell and Lovett maintained their innocence and went to trial beginning Aug. 19.
Ousley said the defense argued that statements cited in the charges against the officers, such as what narrative they were “sticking with” and Howell’s comment about the use of force being “pretty bad,” were taken out of context.
The officers were comparing notes, not making up a story, and Howell was referring to how Hamblin looked, not the use of force, Ousley said.
Lovett resigned from the state police before the trial and the agency fired Howell, according to Ousley.
Lexington attorney G. Scott Hayworth, who represented Howell in the criminal case, said they had no comment because Hamblin’s civil lawsuit against Howell and others is pending.
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