LMPD :: Louisville Metro Police Department
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Louisville Metro Police Lieutenant fights for his job

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A Louisville Metro Police lieutenant is fighting to keep his job. He says he is being fired for standing up and trying to do the right thing.

Officials within Louisville Metro Police today started the process to remove Lt. Rich Pearson from the force.

Pearson says this all goes back to a confession, murder and a potentially innocent person behind bars.

Lt. Pearson was the lead investigator on one of Louisville's largest drug busts that happened back in November.

Now Pearson is working to keep his job.

"We want the public to see what is going on in the police department because it's not all what it's being portrayed to be," Pearson's attorney Thomas Clay said.

Pearson and his attorney were in court Monday fighting Pearson's termination from the department.

"The actions the chief has taken to me are nothing short of appalling," Clay said.

The official termination reason had to do with Pearson alerting the media about the drug bust but Pearson and his attorney say it goes much deeper.

They allege it has to do with Susan King and suspect Richard Jarrell.

King took a plea in 2008 for the killing of Kyle Breeden in Hardin County.

Just last year Jarrell came forward to LMPD and said he was Breeden's real murderer.

Pearson stood by the officer who brought Jarrell's allegations forward and turned the case over to the innocence project.

Pearson's attorney says if the allegations were true it would have been a black eye for Kentucky State Police who handled the investigation.

"Because of the relationship between the Kentucky State Police and the Louisville Metro Police Department specifically the Kentucky State Police commissioner Rodney Brewer and the chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department Steve Conrad trouble started," Clay said.

We requested a comment from city officials but they declined to say anything because of the pending litigation.

Another hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday.