During his 13-plus years as a Louisville police officer, Charles Randall Moore has been suspended from the force seven times and reprimanded on another eight occasions. He has been the subject of four criminal investigations, although he was never charged.
Moore, 40, has accepted extra pay for court appearances he didn't make, according to department records. He has maintained material of a sexual nature on his computer and repeatedly lied to his superiors, including once about a sexually explicit conversation with an informant, the records show.
Three times, Chief Robert White has promised that further violations "of this nature" would warrant termination.
Yet Moore remains on the Louisville Metro Police force - still working as a district resource officer in west Louisville, drawing an annual salary of $48,776.
His lengthy disciplinary history - obtained by The Courier-Journal through the Kentucky Open Records Act - is about to become an issue in a court case in which Moore made an arrest more than two years ago.
At a hearing Thursday, Assistant Public Defender Chastity Beyl is expected to argue that Moore's testimony about drugs he allegedly found on her client, Steven Lamont Curtis, should be suppressed because Moore's credibility is suspect as a result of his disciplinary record - particularly the instances of dishonesty.
Moore's 794-page internal police file "is extraordinary in terms of both its scope and the serious nature of the misconduct for which he's been repeatedly cited," Beyl said in an e-mail message. She added that the file is "by far the largest ever encountered by our office in nearly 40 years."
Beyl described the volume of disciplinary actions taken against Moore as "exceptionally high" and the number of criminal investigations as "shocking."
Prosecutors said it would be inappropriate to discuss Curtis' case before the hearing.
Through a department spokeswoman, Moore declined to discuss his disciplinary history with the newspaper.
White repeatedly accused reporters of "singling out" and "picking on" Moore, and asked, "What is your point?"
"You are painting a negative picture of somebody, totally unfair, with the b.s. that you write that is unfair," the chief said in an hour-long interview. "When you just maliciously discredit somebody's character and defame them, that is unethical."
Asked whether he thought Moore was fit to be a police officer, White replied, "He's still a police officer. Has he been a perfect police officer? No. Has he made some great cases? Yes. Is he the best police officer we have on the police department? I don't think he is. Is he the worst? I don't necessarily think he is.
"To be honest with you, I think it's a little unfair to focus on one police officer when there are other officers that have done similar things. ... I can see this is going to be very nasty. You are singling out an officer where so many other people have done similar behaviors."
But Samuel Walker, an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the author of 11 books on policing, criminal justice and civil liberties, said Moore's disciplinary history amounts to "a terrible record, one of the worst I've ever heard of."
"You start asking, 'Does he have some special connection, some personal factor?'" Walker said. "I can't understand why he is still on the force. This is completely unacceptable."
Thomas Barker, a former police official in Birmingham, Ala., and now a professor of criminal justice and police studies at Eastern Kentucky University, said the department's four separate sanctions against Moore for lying threaten to imperil his credibility when he is called to testify under oath.
"Telling the truth is the bedrock of being a police officer," Barker said. "The department is saying he can't be trusted to tell the truth to the department, so that raises the question, 'How can he be trusted to tell the truth when he testifies in court?'
"If I were the chief, I would have fired him. If he had lied to me more than once, I would have fired him. How can any supervisor in the department trust him?"
Among his many transgressions resulting in discipline, Moore also has been found responsible for four accidents involving his police cruiser. He has been cited for being rude on the police radio, late for work, absent from the job without permission, and unresponsive when dispatchers and supervisors needed him to make service runs.
In the interview, White argued that he was limited in what he could do with Moore because the city's contract with the police union bars him from considering more than the three previous years of an officer's disciplinary history when imposing new punishment.
"Obviously, I've seen this record and, yeah, it's wild," he said. "But I can't violate the officers' bill of rights. … Does (Moore's record) raise one's antenna? Sure. Does it raise my antenna? Sure. But I still have a legal responsibility to do the right thing."
However, many of Moore's serious offenses have occurred within a three-year window.
For example, after Moore was suspended in December 2002 by then-Louisville Police Chief Greg Smith for lying, White suspended him again, rather than firing him, for the same offense less than six months later.
In his letter of suspension, White said, "Any further violations of this nature shall warrant termination."
Moore also was disciplined eight more times by White between August 2005 and May 2008 - a period of 33 months. Five of the eight cases resulted in suspensions.
In August 2005, about two years after Moore's second suspension for lying, he was found to have committed an array of violations related to court attendance, including the acceptance of unearned court pay, repeated failures to attend court and being late to court.
In his letter imposing discipline in that case, White wrote that Moore not only had demonstrated "an ongoing pattern of failure to properly attend court" but also was continuing to do so, which the chief characterized as "alarming."
But instead of firing Moore, White suspended him again, this time for five days. White once again told Moore that "any further violation of this nature will warrant your termination."
Fourteen months later, in October 2006, a prosecutor took the unusual step of writing a letter of complaint about Moore to White and Maj. David Ray, commander of the department's special-investigations division. It concerned a new instance of misconduct related to court attendance.
In that letter, then-Assistant Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Amanda Snider said that despite being subpoenaed, Moore had missed court appearances in a drug case and did not respond to her telephone calls.
When Moore did show up for a hearing in the case, Snider wrote, his demeanor on the witness stand was "disinterested, arrogant and incompetent."
He also wore two earrings to that hearing, in violation of department policy, according to a videotape of the proceedings. In addition, the tape shows Moore fidgeting on the witness stand, snapping his gum, playing with his fingernails and, at one point, humming between questions.
Further, Moore testified incorrectly about basic facts of the case, including the number of suspects in the vehicle he stopped. That flawed testimony resulted in the suppression of the state's evidence and dismissal of the felony drug charges, court records show.
Snider said in her letter it was "clear" that Jefferson Circuit Judge Steve Mershon "did not believe" Moore.
"I can't help but guess that this finding was somewhat influenced by his demeanor on the stand and conduct throughout the case," she wrote.
Moore - who is black - accused Snider of racism when confronted with her allegations by his supervisor, Sgt. Todd Felty, according to an internal police document.
Asked by Felty whether he really thought it was a "black-white issue," Moore replied, "I'm going to make it one," according to the document.
There is no evidence in the records provided by police that White or Ray ever responded to Snider's concerns. Contacted by the newspaper, Felty referred an interview request to the department, which later said he declined to comment.
Felty, who is now a lieutenant, recommended to Ray in a Dec. 17, 2006, memorandum that Moore be disciplined in connection with the issues Snider raised. But there is no indication in the records obtained by the newspaper that the department did so.
Officer Carey Klain, a department spokeswoman, said last week that Moore received additional training in "courtroom presentation" and was assigned to a different work detail.
Snider, who is now in private practice in Shelbyville, said in a recent interview that she didn't recall receiving a response to her letter. She said it was the only written complaint she made about a police officer during more than five years handling hundreds of cases as a prosecutor in Jefferson and Shelby counties.
She said she took that step partly because her conversations with Moore about the importance of his coming to court "seemed to fall on deaf ears," and because she wanted his file to reflect a written record of her concerns.
She dismissed as "ridiculous" Moore's assertion of racism on her part.
"It wasn't about race," Snider said. "I'm sorry he felt that way. It's sad he didn't take it seriously enough to look at the issues, and instead thought up some invalid excuse."
Snider's letter to police was not the last inquiry about Moore's court attendance. The newspaper asked White in March 2009 about Moore's attendance after finding that his absences had resulted in more than two dozen cases being dismissed since the chief sanctioned him in 2005 for missing court.
White then pledged in that interview that the department would review Moore's attendance, to determine whether he had valid reasons for missing court in the dismissed cases. So far, however, the department has reviewed only Moore's court attendance in 2007. No violations were found.The department's first criminal investigation of Moore stemmed from an emergency protective order obtained by his wife, Jessica, in January 2005 as they were divorcing. The investigation was closed in March of that year, after the order was dismissed by a judge at her request. The Moores divorced a month later.
Jessica Moore, who said in her request for the EPO that her husband threw things at her, harassed her, refused to let her leave the house, destroyed her cell phone and generally acted "crazy," declined recently to be interviewed.
In late October 2006, the department launched its second investigation of Moore after a confidential informant asserted that she had twice performed oral sex on a police officer in exchange for crack cocaine she said he had stashed in his police cruiser, according to the records obtained by the newspaper.
Asked by Sgt. Michael Jacobs of the department's public integrity unit during a sworn, tape-recorded interview on Nov. 1, 2006, whether she was worried about her actions, the informant replied, "He's the police. Why the - should I worry about getting caught?"
According to the transcript, Jacobs replied, "Good point. That's a good point. I mean, if he's the police, you shouldn't have to worry about it."
The informant answered, "Who's gonna call the police on the police?"On the night of Jan. 23, 2007, the records show, two officers tried to determine where Moore lived. "Officer Moore conceals his address from the department, and we had to drive around trying to find his address," one officer wrote as part of his investigative report.
Records of the department's investigation show that for at least six months it conducted periodic surveillance of locations Moore was "known to visit," including round-the-clock videotaped observations from a parked van in May 2007. During the investigation, another confidential informant told police that an officer driving a cruiser traced to Moore was visiting a "known prostitute."
There is no indication in the records that the department interviewed Moore in connection with the investigation, which ended in January 2008 after the key witness was incarcerated. She had been unable to make an identification of the officer involved from photographs shown to her by police, and investigators concluded that her allegations were "unsubstantiated."
In January 2007, the department opened its third criminal investigation of Moore after a fellow officer alleged that Moore had accepted a cash payment from a confidential informant who had just received $150 from police for his role in a successful drug bust.
Det. Kevin McKinney, who told investigators that he witnessed the payment to Moore in a department office on Industry Road, said the informant told Moore "here's your tip" after handing over the money - either $10 or $20. McKinney said he saw Moore put the money on the desk where he was working.
Moore's partner at the time, Officer Austin Boone, confirmed McKinney's account when he spoke to investigators. Boone added, however, that he and Moore had bought things for the informant, including cigarettes, soft drinks and at least one meal, and that the informant may have simply been repaying Moore.
The informant initially denied giving Moore any money but almost immediately changed his story and said the money was offered as repayment for a pack of cigarettes.
The informant also denied to police that Moore took the money, a claim that conflicted with the sworn statements provided by officers McKinney and Boone.
McKinney said in his interview with police investigators that he didn't think the informant's money was a payback, partly because "I don't think we're supposed to give CIs (confidential informants) any type of money." In addition, he stressed that he heard the informant refer to the payment to Moore as "a tip," not repayment.
According to the interview transcript, upon hearing the informant deny that Moore received any money, investigator Jacobs immediately replied, "I was really hoping where it would be something like this, where the officer didn't do anything wrong. … I was hoping it would be a misunderstanding, but we have to ask these questions, OK?"
Investigators attempted to question Moore in the case, on April 5, 2007, but he refused to answer questions. Instead, he asked one of his own: Who had lodged the complaint against him? His questioners refused to tell him. An attorney later told police that he had consulted with Moore and advised him not to talk.
During the interview Jacobs appeared to offer Moore an alibi, saying, "I mean, did he owe you money for something, did he even pay you, you know, if he walks out of the office with the money, that's his money, OK."
Moore replied, "Uh, uh."
Moments later, Jacobs added, "If there is nothing criminal here, then hopefully we can get rid of this and close the case out, I mean, that's what I would love to do, I don't want to draw this out any longer than I have to, you know. …"
Moore responded that he didn't want to talk.
In November 2007, Jacobs did close the case, saying he was "unable to substantiate any criminal activity on behalf of Officer Moore."
As that inquiry was winding down, in October 2007, the department's fourth criminal investigation of Moore was beginning, after a 32-year-old woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in the swimming pool at a home where Moore's partner, Boone, was staying while the owner was away.
The woman said she and a friend had gone with Moore, whom they knew casually, to the home about 3 a.m., after the downtown bars they were frequenting had closed.
Nothing untoward occurred while the two officers and the women, clad in their underwear, played water games, according to the investigative file.
But after Boone and the other woman went inside, leaving Moore and his accuser alone in the water, she told police that he approached her from behind in the shallow end of the pool and assaulted her sexually.
After she left the house and called police at the urging of her boyfriend, the woman was taken to University Hospital for an examination, the records show. But they contain no indication of what the exam revealed.
Both women acknowledged drinking before the alleged incident, and Moore's accuser said she could not remember certain aspects of the case. She told police, "I felt like he assaulted me," but she also said, "I don't know what, um, responsibility I had in welcoming that advance."
When investigators attempted to interview Moore on Oct. 6, 2007, he refused to talk to them, saying he needed to consult with an attorney. But in an interview with police investigators, Boone said Moore told him that the woman was "crazy," and that he denied having sex with her.
After their investigation, police presented their findings to the commonwealth's attorney's office, which in March 2008 declined to prosecute, the records show.
As the last criminal investigations were concluding, Moore was twice suspended by White in March 2008 - for 20 days in connection with his possession of 13 driver's licenses and ID cards belonging to people with whom he had had contact, and for four days after it was determined that he had lied to three different department officials about his home address and had failed to notify the department for more than a year about where he lived.
Why Moore concealed his address and then was untruthful when asked about it is unclear. The records provided by the department don't indicate a reason.
In the 20-day discipline case, White told Moore - for the third time in less than five years - that any additional violations "of this nature" would warrant termination.
White was asked in the interview why he did not fire Moore for the most recent incident of lying, which not only was his eighth disciplinary offense in less than three years but also one that involved multiple instances of dishonesty.
The chief replied, "They're all from the same incident. So he was consistent with his lie . … It's one investigation. … One might interpret that to be one big lie. You might interpret that to be, (he) lied three separate times. But you're not sitting in this chair."