CINCINNATI, OHIO — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by five University of Kentucky football players who were falsely accused of crimes after being racially harassed and assaulted at a fraternity party in Lexington.
The plaintiffs, Reuben Jelani Adams, Robert Jutahn McClain, Andru Jackson Phillips, Devito Cyn’cer Tisdale, and Joel Dandre Williams, sued the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and multiple Lexington police officers in their individual capacities, alleging violations of their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as state-law claims for malicious prosecution and defamation.
The lawsuit stems from a March 2021 incident at a party hosted by the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, where the plaintiffs, all Black, were allegedly subjected to racial slurs and physical assaults. Despite evidence suggesting they were victims, Lexington police detective Cory Vinlove pursued charges against them. A grand jury later declined to indict any of the players, and the university cleared them of wrongdoing. However, the accusations, which were widely publicized, damaged their reputations and careers.
The plaintiffs alleged malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence, and supervisory failures by police leadership. However, the Sixth Circuit held that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege a deprivation of liberty as required for a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim. The court emphasized that the players were never arrested, jailed, required to post bond, or subject to travel restrictions.
Because no liberty deprivation occurred, the court also rejected the fabrication of evidence claim and dismissed related supervisory and municipal liability claims.
On the state-law defamation claim, the court found that the police press release repeating the criminal allegations was protected under Kentucky’s absolute judicial statements privilege. The plaintiffs failed to allege any defamatory statement beyond what was already in the official charging documents.
The court also dismissed the plaintiffs’ state-law malicious prosecution claim against Police Chief Lawrence Weathers and Sergeant Donnell Gordon, finding no evidence that either had initiated, continued, or procured the criminal proceedings.
The district court’s decision was unanimously affirmed.
