Now, a police spokesperson confirmed, another broken pipe has damaged some evidence.
January 19th 2017
the Louisville Metro Police Department Headquarters building have prompted an OSHA complaint, a possible lawsuit, a relocation of officers. Now, a police spokesperson confirmed, another broken pipe has damaged some evidence.
For months WAVE 3 News has been reporting about the conditions inside the department’s headquarters, with exclusive pictures of leaking pipes.
This weekend yet another pipe burst.
“It’s a horrible situation for our city,” Louisville attorney Brian Butler said.
Butler said evidence has to be in substantially the same condition as when it was seized.
LMPD would not say how many pieces of evidence got wet, the kinds of cases they belong to or the extent of the damage. They did say they don’t believe any of the evidence was compromised, but they can’t be sure yet.
To Butler, water damage would immediately raise a flag.
“That could potentially compromise a case,” he said.
“Angry, very angry,” Mona Mills said. “If you’re evidence is gone, it’s just a crying shame.”
Mills’ sister was murdered in 1981. Mills knows firsthand how much one piece of evidence can mean.
“It’s a 150 percent important. Cases linger on this evidence,” she said.
“This is something that has to be fixed or they’re going to have to think of another place to put it,” victim’s rights advocate Katherine Nichols of Kentuckians’ Voice for Crime Victims added.
The city’s price tag to fix the building has been quoted at $15 million, according to city documents.
For now, LMPD said they have moved the evidence to another room inside the same building.
Nichols hopes the city doesn’t drag its feet fixing the building’s plumbing problems.
WATCH: Natalia Martinez’s report
“The finances, the money, the budget, these are very important things though,” she said.
The city is more than $140 million behind on repairs on buildings or deferred maintenance – including LMPD’s Headquarters.
The department did not want to comment on camera or allow us to get video of the damage because of the sensitive materials contained in the room.
The city expects to move some employees, including detectives, from headquarters to another building in the next couple of weeks. Many others will remain there, including the chief.
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