An incompetent Kentucky cop with an arrogant attitude and a malicious demeanor has been sued twice in less than a month for abusing his authority by arresting drivers over minor traffic infractions when they dared exercise their constitutional rights to either remain silent or record police activity in public.
In the latest lawsuit filed last week, Kentucky state trooper Myron Jackson pulled a pizza deliveryman over for failing to use his turn signal when pulling into the parking lot of the Papa John’s in Frankfort while working on May 1, 2024.
Jackson then accused the driver, Nicholas Ngeh, of having “an attitude” when he exercised his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during the traffic stop, refusing to answer questions that were not relevant to the traffic stop.
But Trooper Jackson then displayed his attitude and incompetence by pulling Ngeh out of the car when it wasn’t even in park, allowing the car to continue rolling without a driver in the seat, creating a dangerous situation for anybody in its path.
Jackson then chased after the car and hopped into the driver’s seat to apply the brakes, later telling another cop that he was aware the car was not in park, which made him believe the driver would drive off.
“I knew it wasn’t in park but I really didn’t think it through,” he said, acknowledging his incompetency and lack of awareness.
Ngeh was arrested on a charge of obstructing governmental operations, which was dismissed on July 18, 2024.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on July 17 by the Johnson Branco & Brennan law firm in Kentucky, accuses Trooper Jackson of malicious prosecution by violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights.
According to the claim:
Trooper Jackson charged Nicholas with violating KRS 519.020 Obstructing Governmental Operations.
Trooper Jackson then transported Nicholas to the Franklin County Regional Jail where he was incarcerated until he was administratively released the next day.
Nicholas walked miles back to his vehicle to get home.
When Trooper Jackson began writing the citation he wrote about concerns of intoxication.
However, Trooper Jackson did not conduct any field sobriety tests nor conduct a preliminary breath test on Nicholas.
Trooper Jackson did not have any suspicion of impaired driving and only wrote it as a pretext to justify the order to get of the car. Trooper Jackson knew that the arrest for Obstructing governmental operations lacked probable cause.
Despite this, Trooper Jackson did not inform the prosecuting authority, or anyone else, that the arrest lacked probable cause.
Previous Lawsuit
The same Kentucky law firm filed another federal lawsuit against Jackson and another trooper named Jason Briscoe on June 25 on behalf of a woman named Christen Johnson who was arrested for recording from her front porch.
That incident took place on July 31, 2024, when Jackson pulled over Johnson’s mother, Christina Calvert, for an expired tag when the tag had not expired, making it an “illegal traffic stop,” according to the claim.
Calvert’s tag showed that it expired in July 2024, which means it had not expired even though it was the last day of the month.
Jackson claimed “an internal system alerting its officers statewide that registration tags are expired on the last day of each month when they are not actually expired,” the claim states.
Jackson had pulled Calvert over after she pulled into the driveway of her daughter’s house, prompting Johnson to step outside to inquire why her mother was being pulled over.
Jackson ordered her back inside the house under the threat of arrest.
Johnson walked back inside and stepped back outside with her phone and started recording from her front porch, about 25 feet from Jackson and her mother who was still sitting in her car.
“Go inside of the house or I will take you from your kids and take you to jail,” Jackson threatened the daughter.
But Johnson asserted her right to record police activity in public, prompting Jackson to handcuff her and drag her to his patrol car, where he arrested her on charges of obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest, which were later dismissed.
Her mother, meanwhile, called 911 and spoke to Kentucky State Police Sgt. Jason Briscoe, who viewed the body camera footage and told the mother the arrest was valid, when it clearly was an unlawful arrest, considering numerous courts have affirmed citizens have the right to record police in public as long as they are not physically interfering.
According to the claim:
Because of Christen’s assertion of her Constitutional rights, Trooper Jackson grabbed Ms. Johnson’s wrists, forced her hands behind her back, and placed her in handcuffs.
As he escorted Christen in handcuffs toward his cruiser, Trooper Jackson yanked her arm.
Christen was barefoot and being dragged over gravel, so when Trooper Jackson yanked her arm she fell onto gravel and Trooper Jackson dragged her body toward his cruiser.
Christen suffered scrapes and bruises when Trooper Jackson dragged her handcuffed body through the gravel.
Trooper Jackson pushed Christen on her hands and knees into the back of his patrol vehicle.
Trooper Jackson did not seatbelt Christen in his cruiser.
Trooper Jackson then departed the scene with Christen crying and pleading about needing to be with her kids.
Trooper Jackson did not issue a written citation or warning to Ms. Calvert about her tags.
The lawsuit accuses both troopers of various offenses, including violating her First and Fourth Amendment rights, battery, malicious prosecution, false arrest, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Jackson, who graduated from high school in 2019, was hired by the Kentucky State Police in 2023. The leadership at Kentucky State Police, specifically Commissioner Phillip “PJ” Burnett Jr., who heads the entire department, was sued in 2014 for the same type of behavior.
It seems to be part of the department’s culture, considering another Kentucky state trooper was sued last month for tasering a man while ordering him to get on the ground, while the man was already on the ground.
Trooper James Cameron Wright was already facing federal charges for another unrelated incident when the lawsuit was filed on June 16.
Watch videos of both arrests for which Jackson is being sued below.
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