Lexington Police Department 2022 Misconduct Report
There have been twelve formal complaints filed against ten different sworn Lexington Police officers so far in 2022. Violations ranged from placing a GPS tracker on an ex-girlfriend’s car, falsifying timesheets, and one officer was even caught with a large amount of drugs and routinely turned his body camera off during searches.
Only two of the complaints made the local paper, the Lexington Herald-Leader. You can peruse these and past years’ complaints at the LPD Public Integrity Unit’s homepage.
Officer Brent Bereznak
Placed a GPS tracker on his girlfriend’s car.
1/19/22 – 2022F-001 – Misconduct – Special Operations – Resigned on 2/04/2022
Reported by local media? NO
Details:
On November 1st, 2021, a formal complaint was filed against Officer Bereznak alleging that he placed a GPS tracker on a vehicle without the owner’s knowledge or consent. The investigation pursuant to the formal complaint resulted in the conclusion that Officer Bereznak did place the tracker on the vehicle without the owner’s knowledge of consent. Officer Bereznak’s conduct regarding the tracker was determined to not be contrary to the law or Department policies.
On November 10th, 2021 and December 7th, 2021, Officer Bereznak was interviewed by PIU. During both Interviews. Officer Bereznak denied having placed the tracker on the vehicle. Due to the evidence reviewed by the Public Integrity Unit during the investigation of the formal complaint, it is believed that Officer Bereznak intentionally made untruthful statements during both formal interviews.
LPD Formal Complaint 2022F-001
Officer Duane Baillio
Habitually failed to activate his body camera when responding to calls.
2/22/22 – 2022F-002 – Body-Worn Camera Procedures – Patrol – Approved 4/14/22 – One day suspension without pay
Reported by local media? NO
Details:
On or about December 30, 2021 Officer Duane Baillio was discovered to not have activated his BWC per policy on a call for service. Between the dates of 1/9/2021 and 12/30/2021 Officer Baillio had 8 incidents involving body camera errors or issues, which included six failure to activate and one attempt failure.
LPD Formal Complaint 2022F-002
Officers Adam Ray, Ben Starkey, and Joseph Williams
Photoshopped a phallus over an award the Police Chief was presenting to a female officer. Sent it to her and others. Ray later lied about it to an HR investigator.
Read more: Wiseass cop photoshops phallus into image of Lexington police chief, hilarity does not ensue
Reported by local media? YES
3/3/22 – 2022F-003 – Misconduct / Conduct Toward the Public and Conduct Toward Department Employees – Bureau of Special Operations – Retired on 6/08/2022
3/3/22 – 2022F-004 – Conduct Toward the Public and Conduct Toward Department Employees – Bureau of Special Operations – Approved 6/23/22 – One day suspension without pay
3/29/22 – 2022F-006 – Conduct Toward the Public and Conduct Toward Department Employees – Bureau of Special Operations – Approved 6/23/22 – One day suspension without pay
Officer Ray Wilson
Consistently left his patrol sector to run personal errands, including Christmas shopping. Consistently lied about his location and showed up late to dispatched calls.
Details:
Reported by local media? NO
3/21/22 – 2022F-005 – Unsatisfactory Performance / Misconduct – Bureau of Patrol – Retired on 7/15/2022
Officer Jonathan Coyle
Cut someone off in his cruiser on the bypass in Richmond at 4:47PM. Was scheduled to be patrolling in West Sector until 5PM. Three weeks later, the same concerned citizen caught him again at 4:57PM. (Remind me never to cut that guy off.)
Details: Coyle told supervisors that he was going to pick up his child in the first case, and had a “stomach ailment” in the second case.
Covered by local media? NO
4/25/22 – 2022F-007 – Violating any Rules of the Department / Operation and Maintenance of Department Vehicles – Bureau of Patrol – Approved 8/18/22 – Written reprimand and two weeks suspension of home fleet
Kyle Blankenship
Found with drugs, including heroin/fentanyl Confiscated drugs, paraphernalia, and personal items from suspects and did not book them into evidence or file charges. Fleet Services described a “strong odor of marijuana” coming from his cruiser when he dropped it off for service. Also habitually turned off his body camera when conducting searches.
Covered by local media? YES
5/20/22 – 2022F-008 – Processing Property and Evidence – Bureau of Patrol – Approved 9/8/22 – Three month suspension without pay
6/6/22 – 2022F-010 – Misconduct – Bureau of Patrol – Approved 9/8/22 – Three month suspension without pay
Sergeant Daniel Fleischer
Sgt. Fleischer’s supervisor got upset when he didn’t respond to emails or do his administrative tasks in a timely manner. They looked into his timesheets and it turned out that he was being paid by the Police Department for working shifts, while at the same time being paid by Guardian Security for providing security at different locations.
Details:
Immediately after organizing all of the hours Sergeant Fleischer had worked, from August 1st
2021 through June 4th, 2022, multiple discrepancies were observed. It appears that he had
worked a total of eleven shifts at the Police Department, at the same time he was being paid by
Guardian Security, for work he was allegedly completing for them. There was also one
incident where he had declared he had worked two shifts for Guardian Security at the same
time, in separate locations and was compensated for both. There were also multiple dates that
showed he worked over 20 hours consecutively and on some dates over 35 hours without a
break. There were also multiple errors throughout the roster that supports Lieutenant Burnett’s
allegation of subpar administrative abilities .
Covered by local media? NO
6/1/22 – 2022F-009 – Unsatisfactory Performance – Bureau of Patrol – Retired on 7/20/2022
7/6/22 – 2022F-011 – Misconduct – Bureau of Patrol – Retired on 7/20/2022
Officer Kevin Preston
Tuned off his body camera halfway through a shift. Did not turn it back on for the next two shifts, where he did not respond to any calls or move from the parking garage for the duration.
Read more: Lexington cop sat in parking garage for two straight shifts; only received written reprimand
Covered by local media? NO
8/2/22 – 2022F-012 – Accountability and Responsibility / Body Worn Camera Procedures – Bureau of Special Operations – 10/13/22 – Written reprimand
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