The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice has paid $70,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by an employee alleging physical abuse of a teen boy at one of its juvenile detention centers, according to records obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann O’Connell struck the suit from her docket Sept. 29 after the department settled with David Richardson, who was a social service worker at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia.
The case was originally set for trial last July 14 after the department failed to get it dismissed.
Richardson sued the department in 2023. He said was helping several colleagues who were struggling to restrain a teen boy in the East 100 Unit of the juvenile detention center on March 6, 2023.
Richardson said he held one of the boy’s arms. When he asked the boy if he was finished resisting the staff, the boy agreed that he was, Richardson said.
“However, Assistant Superintendent Christopher Rakes shouted at David, ‘I need him in compliance,’ indicating to David to bend the youth’s arm back more,” the suit alleged.
Richardson said he refused to bend the youth’s arm farther because there was no need for it, according to the suit.
“David pleaded with Rakes, telling Rakes, ‘He is in compliance, he is in compliance’ and that there was no reason to bend the youth’s arm any farther,” the suit alleged. “Another staff worker then pushed David to the side, grabbed the youth’s arm and cranked it back until the...
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