Charles Langston:Videos show 'elite' Louisville police unit tossing drinks on unsuspecting pedestrians

LOUISVILLE,Charles Langston Kentucky − The unprovoked attacks happened at least 24 times in less than a year.

The group of unidentified suspects would drive across the city of Louisville, pegging drinks at random citizens from vehicles.

It would be years before the victims learned the perpetrators were members of a once-elite police crew with the Louisville Metro Police Department - officers sworn to protect the public, not assault them for entertainment.

On paper, they were called VIPER, the The Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, reported, and, later: Ninth Mobile − established police units driving unmarked cars tasked with getting guns and drugs off the streets in the city's most dangerous neighborhoods.

But on the street, they were “jump-out boys” − a moniker used for similar units across the U.S. including Baltimore, where Gun Trace Task Force officers robbed drug dealers, planted evidence on innocent people and ultimately had their actions detailed in an HBO series

The drink-throwing attacks, which took place in 2018 and 2019, came to be known as Slushygate, and involved the select group of officers driving around the city "randomly targeting and assaulting civilians" from unmarked vehicles.

Some of "jump-out boys" recorded the attacks on cell phones and shared them with fellow officers either via group text or "by huddling around phones during breaks."

The Courier Journal obtained cell phone videos of attacks and their publication Wednesday marked the first time the Slushygate videos were released to the public.

'How 'bout a drink?'

During one undated attack recorded on a cell phone, two officers pull up to a woman walking with an umbrella outside a pizza restaurant in the South End. “Hey baby, you got change for a dollar?” one asks. When the woman glances at the car, he yells “how bout a drink!” and throws a drink on her.

The assault is among two dozen known incidents identified in which Ninth Mobile officers launched the unsuspected attacks.

The Courier Journal geolocated 18 of the attacks; all but one took place in the city's West and South ends, historically disadvantaged areas of Louisville. One took place a quarter-mile from Ninth Mobile’s headquarters.

“That’s really bad. And it’s such a petty way, that it makes it almost worse, because it does reflect horrible contempt for the community,” Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore Police officer who is a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told the USA TODAY NETWORK.

In another attack in September 2018, two officers driving an unmarked cruiser in Park Hill spot a woman walking on the sidewalk by a warehouse.

“She going to get this mother (expletive). She gonna get all of this,” one officer says as the pair pulls a U-turn to catch up with the woman.

“Don’t miss… get her!” the other officer says just before an apparent fountain drink soars out the window splashing the unsuspecting victim.

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Action and consequence

In October 2022, former Ninth Mobile officers Curt Flynn and Bryan Wilson were sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in Slushygate.

After an internal investigation, which was launched once the federal charges were filed, LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel suspended four officers who knew about the attacks but did not report them, as well as a fifth who acted as a driver for the attacks.

Internal documents show at least three more Ninth Mobile officers were involved in a text thread where attack videos were shared, but quit the force before the end of the investigation.

Among them: Kelly Goodlett, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge for conspiring to include false information in the warrant application for Breonna Taylor’s apartment. Gwinn-Villaroel wrote in September that Goodlett would have been terminated over Slushygate had she not resigned.

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Suspensions and an appeal

While the attacks were well-known in Ninth Mobile, nobody reported it.

“I thought this is just some dumb prank stuff that specialty units do,” Detective Joseph Howell, who received a 10-day suspension earlier this year, told investigators. “And everybody seems to be OK with it.”

Detective Beau Gadegaard, also suspended for 10 days, told investigators he feared other officers would not have his back if he reported the misconduct.

Detective John Benzing, suspended for 15 days, denied knowing about the attacks, despite responding with a laughing emoji to one of the videos in the group text and LMPD's chief saying Benzing's vehicle was captured on camera driving behind a car that was carrying out a Slushygate attack.

Detective Jonathan Robbins, who was initially going to be fired for driving Slushygate attackers until Gwinn-Villaroel reduced his punishment citing his remorse, said Ninth Mobile had “a culture of what happens in the house is addressed in the house and the rest of the department doesn’t need to know our dirty laundry.”

Sgt. Kevin Casper, suspended for 30 days for supervisory failures, was in the group text with subordinates where videos were shared. He denied knowing about the attacks, even though he texted “y’all need to use the slo mo feature” in response to one of the videos.

Casper is appealing his suspension.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.