A former Kentucky State Police trooper accused of beating a handcuffed man was rejected as an applicant multiple times before being hired in 2018, according to a report published Thursday.
Aaron Tucker had been rejected four times previously by Kentucky State Police for various reasons including his performance during oral board interviews and bad character references, WDRB-TV reported, citing documents filed in a lawsuit against the officer. He was hired after state police changed the standards for becoming a trooper due to a lack of applicants and a shortage of troopers.
The lawsuit filed by Timothy "Michael" Heston says the state police agency lowered standards for applicants in 2017 and allowed unqualified people to become troopers.
"When your own agency declines to hire somebody on multiple occasions because of all these red flags, and then someone from the top says, ‘We need more bodies,’ and totally reverses those prior decisions, it’s shocking," said Heston's attorney, Elliot Slosar. "And it’s so shocking that people need to be held accountable for that."
A Kentucky State Police spokesperson did not respond to questions about Tucker’s hiring, but attorneys for Kentucky State Police argued in part in a response filed earlier this week that former Chief Rick Sanders was responsible for hiring Tucker and that he is no longer with the department.
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An attorney for Tucker did not respond to a message seeking comment. Sanders declined to comment because the litigation is pending.
Tucker stopped Heston, who is biracial, as Heston walked along Interstate 65 in Bowling Green in 2019, according to the lawsuit.
According to a police report, Heston allegedly cursed and threatened the trooper and resisted arrest. When Heston was taken to jail, he "tensed up" when he was taken out of the cruiser, attempted to spit on Tucker and "used his head" to hit him, according to the report.
"After the altercation had ensued, I was able to regain control of the above offender by placing him on the ground," Tucker wrote.
Surveillance video obtained by WDRB News shows Tucker walking Heston to a door at the jail where Heston seems to weave or stumble and the trooper punches him several times, knees him and then takes him to the ground.
Heston’s defense attorney found the video after receiving discovery material from the jail in preparation for trial. Charges including terroristic threatening and resisting arrest were dismissed after Heston spent almost a year in jail.
State police fired Tucker after an internal investigation of the case, the station reported.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
