A federal judge has allowed a whistleblower lawsuit to continue against the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice related to the alleged sexual abuse of girls in state custody.
Michelle Ratliff and Betty Tucker were contract nurses at the all-girls Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Newport in 2023 when they said they reported management’s failure to confront Corrections Officer Neil Moorman for inappropriate physical contact with girls held at the center.
Internal investigative reports later obtained by the Herald-Leader showed that the Department of Juvenile Justice allowed Moorman to continue working at the center until May 31, 2023, despite weeks of warnings to managers from his worried colleagues and safety concerns shared by several girls housed there.
As Ratliff and Tucker shared their concerns with the FBI, the Kentucky State Police and the news media, Moorman was fired and eventually charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
Moorman’s trial is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Campbell Circuit Court. He was fined $5,000 last year by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission for “inappropriate physical contact” with a girl who was housed at the juvenile detention center.
However, the nurses said their contracts with the juvenile detention center were terminated as a form of retaliation by the Department of Juvenile Justice, which did not appreciate the bad publicity.
The nurses sued, alleging violations of their First Amendment rights under federal and...
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