An investigation by law firm Dilbeck and Meyers has cleared Louisville Metro Police Maj. Brian Kuriger, who was accused of sexually harassing another high-ranking officer.
Maj. Shannon Lauder brought the accusations during a meeting in late May in which Chief Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel planned to promote Kuriger. A recording of the meeting leaked by Lauder to the media showed that Gwinn-Villaroel went forward with the promotion less than a minute after Lauder claimed Kuriger “sexually harassed and attacked” her. Gwinn-Villaroel was forced to resign on June 25, after spending two weeks on paid suspension.
In an email to local news outlets Monday, LMPD Interim Chief Paul Humphrey announced Kuriger would not face any disciplinary action as a result of Lauder’s claims.
“The independent investigation found that Major Kuriger did not violate LMPD Standard Operating Procedures related to allegations made by Major Shannon Lauder while conducting certain Professional Standards Unit (PSU) investigations that name Major Lauder as a subject of investigation,” Humphrey’s said.
Kuriger was also cleared of accusations he acted inappropriately during the time he served as a member of the LMPD Training Academy, he said.
Documents provided by LMPD show Dilbeck and Meyers sent their investigatory findings to the department on July 31. Kuriger was allowed to return to duty last week.
The results of the independent investigation into Kuriger’s actions cast doubt on the claims that preceded the ouster of Gwinn-Villaroel — the city’s fifth police chief since 2020 — as well as an ongoing lawsuit against Louisville Metro.
The investigation
Some parts of the 19-page report by the Dilbeck and Meyers law firm that LMPD provided to the media were redacted.
The sections that are publicly available show Lauder’s claims of harassment centered on how Kuriger conducted an internal investigation into Lauder and her husband, Lt. Jeff Lauder. The Lauders have faced accusations that they hosted an adult pool party in 2020 where Jeff made “unwanted, unsolicited sexual advances” toward another officer with Shannon’s blessing. They deny those claims.
According to the report, Shannon Lauder sent a memo to LMPD leadership on May 23, 2024 accusing Kuriger of mishandling the internal investigations into her and her husband and saying he sexually harassed her in the course of his investigation.
Attorney James Dilbeck, who was hired by LMPD to conduct the investigation into Kuriger, ultimately cleared Kuriger on both counts.
“After reviewing the case file … this investigator believes it was conducted in a fair and reasonable manner. The questioning of the witnesses (including Major Lauder) were proper and necessary to obtain the information…” Dilbeck wrote, with the rest of the sentence blacked out.
Dilbeck noted that Kuriger previously recommended initiating a larger investigation in one of the cases involving Shannon Lauder, despite another investigator recommending the opposite. Kuriger’s rationale for expanding the investigation is also redacted.
Dilbeck looked into claims by Shannon Lauder that Kuriger only sought incriminating evidence against Lauder, threatened Lauder with termination and used “a sexually suggestive tone” when asking inappropriate questions. The attorney found those accusations were unfounded.
As part of his investigation, Dilbeck interviewed an unnamed officer who sat in on Kuriger’s interview of Shannon Lauder as part of the internal investigation. That officer said Lauder appeared “bothered” during the interview but attributed it to “the sensitive nature of the questions.” The officer said he never saw Kuriger show “personal animosity, dislike or bias” toward Shannon Lauder or her husband.
In her May memo, Shannon Lauder also claimed that she had “learned” Kuriger acted inappropriately during the time he worked at the LMPD Training Academy between October 2017 and July 2021. She accused Kuriger of commenting on female recruits’ bodies and receiving lap dances from female recruits at graduation parties.
Like the other allegations, Dilbeck said he did not find anything that corroborated those accusations. He interviewed a training instructor who said he hadn’t heard a bad word about Kuriger before Lauder went to the media with claims of sexual harassment.
Impact on other investigations and a lawsuit
Dilbeck’s investigation and report casts doubt on nearly all of the accusations Shannon Lauder made in her May 23 memo. Those accusations also serve as the basis of her ongoing lawsuit against the city, Kuriger and the officer who filed the sexual harassment complaint against her and her husband, Sgt. Lauren Carby.
Jared Smith, the attorney representing the Lauders, told LPM News in an email Tuesday he believes Dilbeck’s investigation is “incomplete, speculative in part, and ultimately biased.”
“I caution anyone adopting the findings of this investigation as fact, as LMPD so eagerly has,” Smith said. “All matters germane to this investigation and much more will play out in an unbiased manner in the Jefferson County Circuit Court.”
Smith added that Shannon and Jeff Lauder are “eager” to testify.
Dilbeck’s report also provides more information about the meeting this May that led to Gwinn-Villaroel’s suspension and forced resignation.
In an interview, Kuriger told Dilbeck LMPD leadership was called into the meeting on May 22, 2024 at the last minute. Kuriger said he thought Shannon Lauder might say something, but he wasn’t prepared to have Lauder lob the same sexual assault accusations she was facing back at him. He said he was “shell shocked” and did not respond.
After the meeting, Kuriger said he had gone into another room to “decompress” when Gwinn-Villaroel summoned him to her office, where all the other police majors also were. Kuriger denied knowing anything about Shannon Lauder’s claims against him and agreed to allow for an independent investigation.
Gwinn-Villaroel was placed on paid suspension less than a month later, while a third-party investigation into how she handled Lauder’s unexpected allegations during that meeting.
Kevin Trager, a spokesperson for Mayor Craig Greenberg, did not immediately respond to questions about when that investigation would be completed.
