A Louisville Metro Police Department lieutenant who is facing a 20-day suspension for not reporting a subordinate’s use of deadly force is under additional scrutiny after body camera footage showing him issuing an “unlawful camping” citation to a pregnant homeless woman surfaced on Thursday.
As first reported by The Courier Journal on Wednesday, Lt. Caleb Stewart, who heads the department’s Downtown Area Patrol and has been the city’s point man on enforcing Kentucky’s controversial unlawful camping law, is appealing a 20-day suspension for not reporting a subordinate using a “choking technique” on a man with an apparent mental illness after the man chugged a stolen drink at a Louisville hotel.
An LMPD internal affairs investigation concluded the subordinate’s actions were an unjustified use of deadly force and that Stewart, despite learning of the incident, never reported it as required by policy.
The day after The Courier Journal’s story ran, Kentucky Public Radio published body camera video footage showing Stewart issuing an unlawful camping citation to a homeless woman who was in active labor and awaiting an ambulance, justifying his actions by saying: “I don’t for a second believe this woman is going into labor.”
The woman’s public defender told public radio she gave birth later that day.
Amid an online uproar following the publication of the story, LMPD on Thursday evening publicly released hours of Stewart’s body camera footage from the day the woman was given a citation.
In the footage, the woman can be heard saying her husband went off to find a phone to call an ambulance, as she did not have a phone.
The woman told Stewart her water had broken, and he called in an ambulance for her, but proceeded to charge her with unlawful camping for having a mattress beneath an overpass.
“Am I being detained?” she asked at one point while trying to walk away.
“Yes, you’re being detained,” Stewart said. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”
According to documents reviewed by The Courier Journal, Stewart issued 26 of the total 44 unlawful camping violations handed out by LMPD officers between July 15 and Nov. 20 of this year.
In a statement Thursday night, Sgt. Matt Sanders, an LMPD spokesman, appeared to defend Stewart’s actions, saying the woman had, on two previous occasions, declined offers of “resources for shelter” from the city.
“We support our officers in using discretion and the information available to them at the time in making decisions,” Sanders said. “We also understand everyone may not agree with those decisions, but we are committed to being transparent in communicating and explaining processes and policy to the community.”
Similarly, Kevin Trager, a spokesperson for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, stood by the officer’s actions.
“We are thankful LMPD called an ambulance, and the baby was born in a hospital with medical care,” he said in a written statement. “This is why our homeless services staff work hard to offer support and shelter to those in need. Unfortunately, there are people living on our streets who turn down these offers of help even though they desperately need them.”
Trager did not respond to questions from The Courier Journal about whether the mayor had watched videos of the pregnant woman receiving a citation or of Stewart’s subordinate using force on the man at the downtown hotel.
As the head of the Downtown Area Patrol, Stewart is a member of the Louisville Downtown Partnership, an economic development nonprofit.
In response to an email from The Courier Journal seeking comment, Louisville Downtown Partnership executive director Rebecca Fleischaker said: “We’ve seen the statement that LMPD put out and we think that suffices.”
In the video, Stewart can be seen handing the woman a citation and telling her about an upcoming court date as an approaching ambulance’s siren wails.
“If you fail to appear, the judge may issue a warrant, OK?” Stewart said to the woman, who was sitting on the ground.
She crumpled the paper and threw it on the ground before going to the hospital to give birth.
Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JWoodJourno.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD officer charged pregnant homeless woman in labor