(LEX 18) — The Kentucky Court of Appeals filed an opinion Friday reversing the dismissal of a lawsuit that asked a Fayette County court to order a pause in Lexington’s ban on no-knock warrants until the city and police union are able to come to a collective bargaining agreement on the topic.
Friday’s decision sends the lawsuit back to Fayette County Circuit Court for further consideration on whether a pause on the ban should be implemented.
In June of 2021, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted to ban no-knock warrants in the county. The ban was introduced after community outcry in the aftermath of Louisville police shooting and killing 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in 2020.
Before the ordinance passed, Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers said that no-knock warrants were rarely used by the department here, but that he felt they were a vital tool he didn’t want taken away from officers.
The lawsuit was filed days later by the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge #4. It accused the city of violating Lexington police officers’ right to collectively bargain on matters related to their health and safety and asked the court to pause the ban until a collective bargain could be reached between the city and police union.
The lawsuit was dismissed in December of 2021 by Fayette Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Bunnell. Bunnell wrote in the order dismissing the lawsuit that “in enacting the No-Knock Ordinance, LFUCG made a public policy decision solely and completely within its purview as an elected body.”
The Court of Appeal’s opinion filed Friday reversed the dismissal of the lawsuit against the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, stating that the police union had legal standing in its claim that the city breached its contract in implementing the ordinance without bargaining with the police union first.
The opinion went on to say that the decision of whether a breach of claim actually took place remained unresolved and should go to a jury if an answer cannot be found in court proceedings.
The opinion did agree with and uphold the dismissal of the lawsuit as it pertained to the individual defendants on the original complaint, Mayor Linda Gorton and the members of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council.
