‘I am gonna put you on the ground.’ Homeless woman sues Lexington police over broken leg

A woman living at a Lexington homeless shelter said in a lawsuit that her leg was broken by Lexington police officers at a hospital where she went for treatment last spring.

Linda Trapp said in the lawsuit filed in Fayette Circuit Court that she was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Saint Joseph East on March 10, 2022, after suffering a head injury from a fall.

Before the night was over, she alleges she “suffered wrongful arrest, imprisonment, emotional injury, severe bodily injuries and delayed medical treatment,” that included multiple surgeries to fix her broken leg.

She’s suing not only the city government, police department and officers involved but also an emergency room doctor, unnamed security guard and the companies providing security and emergency department services.

The lawsuit states Trapp asked the hospital for a COVID-19 test on the night of the incident because the Catholic Action Center shelter, where she was staying, wouldn’t allow her back without a negative test result. She would’ve been forced to sleep outside.

Ginny Ramsey, director of the Catholic Action Center, confirmed the shelter did require a negative test for entry, and still does.

“We have a vulnerable, disabled, and elderly population with lots of chronic conditions,” Ramsey told the Herald-Leader. “It’s protection.”

Ramsey said the hospitals are aware of the shelter’s COVID testing policies.

“Everything could have been averted with getting the COVID test,” she said.

After she was denied the COVID test, Trapp said in the lawsuit that police were called because employees at the hospital didn’t think she would leave.

When Lexington police officer Myles Foster arrived, the lawsuit states he threatened to drag her out of the bed. Trapp said in the lawsuit she got up and walked to the door but stopped before leaving the hospital to again “plead” for a COVID test and to ask for her cane.

“At the time Plaintiff was a sixty-one-year-old woman. She had just suffered head trauma from a fall. In addition Ms. Trapp suffers from a degenerative right knee which caused her to rely on the assistance of a cane to walk,” the lawsuit states.

When she continued to ask for a COVID test, the lawsuit said Foster, knowing she would be spending the night outside, responded, “It’s not that cold tonight you will be alright.”

“At one point during this exchange while inside the hospital and in the presence of Universal security guards, Defendant Foster pushed Plaintiff to the ground and threatened to take her to jail,” the suit states.

Trapp said she would leave on her own. Foster allegedly said during the exchange, “We are not touching you. If I touch you again you are going in cuffs ... and you’re gonna get hurt because I am gonna put you on the ground.”

As Trapp began walking down the driveway and away from the hospital building, she said Foster, another officer whose name is not known, an unknown security guard employed by Universal Protection Service and other employees of the hospital or Southeastern Emergency Physicians “collectively began to humiliate and make fun of” her.

Trapp said she stopped, turned around and again asked for her cane.

One woman yelled back to Trapp that she didn’t have a cane, and Foster responded, “Go find a tree branch or something!”

Trapp told LEX 18, which first reported on the lawsuit, that she mistakenly thought she had brought her cane to the hospital with her. She also told the television station that she had been drinking that night.

As Trapp stood in the same spot, she said in the lawsuit that Foster and the other police officer began walking quickly toward her.

“Defendant Foster violently grabs Plaintiff’s arm and twists it behind her back while forcing her to the ground, face first,” and the other officer “joins in the unnecessarily aggressive ‘take down,’” according to the lawsuit.

“Because I wanted my cane you broke my knee!” the lawsuit says Trapp exclaimed.

The lawsuit said Trapp never resisted or fought either officer. The lawsuit also said neither officer told Trapp she was under arrest, or directed Trapp to put her arms behind her back or lie on the ground. The officers’ conduct caused Trapp “to suffer serious injuries, including a fractured leg and abrasions to her face and head,” the lawsuit said.

Once she was brought back inside the hospital, Trapp allegedly told the doctor in the emergency room, Dr. Timothy Anderson, that she couldn’t walk and asked him to x-ray her leg.

The lawsuit said police body cam footage shows that Anderson “spent approximately 19 seconds” with her, told her that she could get an x-ray “with your doctor at his office” and then turned and walked away.

Trapp accuses him and the company he works for of negligence.

In answering the lawsuit, Anderson denied the allegations and said he “rendered reasonable and appropriate medical care well within the standard of care.”

The suit said Trapp was taken to the Fayette County Detention Center, where she received an x-ray that showed “acute proximal tibia/fibula fractures with malalignment.”

“Plaintiff was taken by ambulance to UK Hospital whereupon she ultimately received medical treatment including numerous surgeries to address the severe injuries suffered due to Defendants actions,” the lawsuit said.

She is accusing Foster and the other unnamed officer of assault and battery and unlawful arrest and imprisonment, and she accuses them and the unnamed security guard of intentional infliction of emotional distress and outrageous conduct, as well as conspiracy.

She said the security company was negligent in its hiring, training, supervision and retention, according to the lawsuit.

Police charged Trapp with resisting arrest and second-degree criminal trespassing, saying she “refused to leave the property.”

“After being advised she was placed under arrest, she began to aggressively resist by throwing her arms around and actively pulling her arms away once officers made contact,” the police uniform citation states. “She dropped her weight, and attempted to tuck her arms under her body.”

Trapp entered an Alford plea to the trespassing charge, in which a defendant does not accept guilt but acknowledges that there is enough evidence to convict them.

Foster said Trapp’s plea “bars all claims concerning the lawfulness” of the arrest, and he said “after multiple prior warnings were communicated to Plaintiff, she had clear reason to know the basis of her arrest,” according to Foster’s answer to the lawsuit.

He “denies any and all liability whatsoever” and said if Trapp was injured, it was not caused by “excessive or unreasonable force,” his legal reply says.

Trapp alleged in the lawsuit that when a police department supervisor arrived at the hospital, Foster made a false report that Trapp said, “FU I am not leaving ... so I went to arrest her and she started flailing her arms and kicking and stuff so I put her on the ground.”

Foster said he did not knowingly make any false statements.

Trapp is accusing the Lexington Police Department of negligence and failure to train and supervise. The police department did not comment on the matter due to pending litigation.

The urban county government and police department have claimed sovereign immunity and have asked the court to dismiss them as defendants.

The urban county government said it would not comment on an open lawsuit.

Saint Joseph Health is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Court records indicate Trapp has been charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct after incidents at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital on more than one occasion.

Reporter Taylor Six contributed to this story.