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| Salisa Luster Rape Survivor |
Rape and its emotional and psychological trauma is a
long lasting nightmare for victims and their families. The family and friends
of Salisa Luster, who was raped and brutally beaten in Louisville, Kentucky,
five-years-ago, are no exception.
Since then, the rapist's escape from justice,
abetted by a Metro Louisville police officer's gross negligence at the crime
scene and blatant misconduct--and a comedy of errors and transparent untruths
implicating other officers--have further traumatized Luster and angered and
bewildered her family and close friends.
Just as painful, they say, was the failure of the
most culpable officer, Rick Woolridge, to arrest, question, detain or label as
a person of interest "an unidentified black man," who was the only
suspect at the scene. Increasing their pain was the alleged indifference
of then Chief Robert C. White, who had the authority to open an official
investigation into Woolridge's misconduct, but declined to do so.
Had Luster been a white woman, some observers
say, Woolridge's policing would doubtless have been aggressive. Luster is
African American, as is the suspected rapist.
Others were struck by the alleged indifference
of an African American police chief toward a black woman's plight. Still
others expressed outrage that Chief White, in refusing to use his power to
investigate the misconduct of Woolridge--a white officer--also appeared to
obstruct justice in defense of a seemingly cold, callous policeman.
Salisa's mother Cheryl Ellis's efforts to
obtain justice for her daughter
Luster's nightmare began on the afternoon of
April 29, 2008: A maintenance man employed by East Chase Apartments, owned by
Sentinel Real Estate Corporation--came to repair the toilet, but, after fixing
it, returned, hours later.
While Luster slept on a sofa, he used a pass key
(only maintenance men and management executives had access to them), to open
the door. Undetected, he entered her apartment. After creeping in,
he began raping her.
When Luster awoke, the maintenance man, whose
uniform she remembered, was choking and raping her. Soon he was hitting her on her head "so hard I
could barely think," she said. Then the rapist, in a bizarre
twist, according to Ellis, "used a solution to wash her hair, took several
pieces of clothing from her closet, drenched them in water and threw them on
the floor."
The rapist, Ellis told Policeabuse.com, did not leave
the apartment after attacking Luster, but stayed through the night.
Luster, only semi-conscious after the attack, was beaten so severely that her
left eye was shut by it, both eyes were blackened and blood clots had formed in
both of them. Despite her battered condition, Luster managed to call 911
and say, "there's a strange man in my apartment; I'm having trouble
breathing," yet the operator who received her plea failed to alert
paramedics.
In the morning, when Luster didn't answer her
telephone or report to work, five young colleagues, all women, went to her
apartment to ensure that she "was okay." Luster's car was
parked in front of her apartment building, so they believed she had not left,
but was still inside her unit.
Without a key to Luster's door, they were forced to
wait outside.
Louisville Officer Rick Wooldridge Ret.
|
Officer Woolridge, a 20-year Metro Louisville
veteran, was dispatched to the scene and arrived soon after the young women,
but would not allow them to go inside with him.
After "less than six minutes inside"
Luster's apartment, according to Ellis, Woolridge left and locked the door
behind him, so the five young women had no access to the apartment.
No one knows what Woolridge said to the
suspected rapist, if anything, but Ellis believes the "unidentified black
man" told Woolridge that he and Luster had had "a lover's spat,"
which Woolridge officer apparently believed or deemed
inconsequential.
Although Luster's face bore all the earmarks of
a brutal beating, Woolridge didn't call emergency medical assistance. Nor
did he file a police report or record any notes regarding his observations, if
any. Woolridge would later claim that he "saw no injuries."
His one single action was to advise another Metro
Louisville police officer that he was not needed at the crime scene.
After giving that "advice," Woolridge walked away. Although the
women say they begged him to open the apartment door, he turned away from them,
walked toward his vehicle and drove off.
As he drove away, one of the young women ran to
the apartment manager's office and said, "I know something is wrong,
please open Salisa's door so we can go in and see her."
When the friends finally got into her apartment, they
were horrified by the damage from the beating.
One of them cried, another began praying.
"We're here for you, you're safe now," a third friend said, as she
called 911 for an emergency response. Luster, again unconscious, was
unable to speak.
A detective, Brian Tucker, eventually
arrived. He accompanied the paramedics and the friends to
the University of Louisville Medical Center's Trauma Unit. Nurses in
the sex crimes section, who photographed Luster, said Woolridge "would
have had to be blind not to see her injuries."
Tucker later told Emergency Medical Services
personnel that Woolridge confirmed that "an unidentified black man told
him: "There are no problems, everything is alright." In
September, Tucker also claimed that he interviewed all five friends who
accompanied Luster to the hospital the morning after she was attacked.
The women, however, flatly deny that Tucker ever interviewed them.
Two unidentified white officers, however, did
interview two of the women in the interview room at the University of Phoenix
in Louisville where they were enrollment advisers. The officers conducted
the two-hour interview with a tape recorder, which they placed on a table and
took notes. When Ellis asked for a copy of the interview, she was told
there was none. Although Tucker's negligence was apparent, he was not
warned, suspended or disciplined.
Ellis said she learned of the interview only
when the women asked if Tucker had told her about it, although as the
victim's mother, he should have shared that information with her. Had
Tucker reported Woolridge to his superior officer, as he was obligated to
do, a record of his misconduct would have compelled an investigation.
Meanwhile, the blows Luster suffered were so powerful
that ophthalmologists filled one eye with a special solution to extract a
contact lens that was imbedded by the force and wouldn't come out.
For eight hours, Luster received treatment in
the emergency room. Two months later, to relieve pressure on her brain
exacerbated by the blows from the attack, she needed a five-hour surgery, at
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, in Little Rock, to halt her
seizures and repair other injuries. The damage from the attack compounded
a pre-existing tumor, Ellis said.
She flew to Louisville, from her home in Omaha,
Nebraska, the day after her daughter was attacked. Within hours after
arriving, she asked a detective for the police report about the brutal beating.
Although Woolridge had not filed a report nor taken
notes on which to base one, the detective responded with an untruth.
"We're in the process of working on it," Ellis said he told her.
Weeks later, when Ellis asked for Woolridge's
notes, another officer admitted that "none exist"
and that "there is no file."
Several months later, in January, 2009, Ellis was
slapped by yet another depressing blow when she sought to file a misconduct
complaint against Officer Woolridge. "Your daughter will have to
file a complaint in person," Ellis said an officer told her.
"You can't file it over the phone, by mail, e-mail, Fax or with a
Fed-Ex. She was assured, Ellis said, that the deadline for the complaint
was February.
Although Luster and her grandmother, Frances Fairmont,
returned to Louisville well before the February deadline, they weren't told
that it had expired in January. Luster, her grandmother and mother were
also unaware that Woolridge had already been allowed to retire on January
31. Thus it was pointless to file a misconduct complaint against an
officer no longer employed by the department.
All three women learned about Woolridge's through a
letter sent by Chief White in September. Ellis filed an appeal in October
but White's decision allowing Woolridge to retire without being held
accountable was upheld.
Woolridge, meanwhile, had already retired with his
pension intact. Then beyond the reach of accountability, departmental
officials told Ellis he no longer could be charged with misconduct.
 |
| Chief Robert White |
Ellis, continuing her quest for justice, received no
assurances of accountability from Chief White, who currently presides over the
police force in Denver, Colorado. White, citing Woolridge's retirement,
told her that nothing could be done to hold him accountable.
White refused to comment for this article.
Through his Chief of Staff, Lt. Murray, he referred all questions to his
successor in Louisville, Chief Steven Conrad.
Diop Kamau, founder and director of
Policeabuse.com., which is assisting Ellis' efforts to seek justice, condemned
White's refusal to investigate Woolridge's alleged misconduct.
"Chief White had nine months to punish, fine, suspend or fire Woolridge,
but chose not to," said Kamau, who did not limit his criticism to the then
chief executive. "Not only did Chief White fail to exercise his
duty, Woolridge's superior officer failed as well," he said.
"The superior officer was obligated to
either sign off on the police report Woolridge should have submitted, or, absent
a report, indicated his objection to the subordinate's failure or refusal to
have written one," Kamau continued, "so he is as responsible for the
obvious misconduct as is Woolridge."
In addition, Kamau said, "I don't believe
that forcing rape victims to file misconduct complaints in person is the
Louisville Police Department's policy now, or that such was the policy in
2009." To demand that rape victims file misconduct complaints in
person, Kamau added, "is unconscionable."
Ultimately, Kamau said, "Chief White should
have been sanctioned for condoning the refusal to act, he was responsible for
what began as Woolridge's determination to do nothing and became a cover-up."
Moreover, Kamau explained, "Chief White
didn't need a complaint to conduct his own investigation; the department had
more than enough evidence to open one."
The chief's failure was not only
"deliberate," Kamau charged, "it also bought Woolridge plenty of
time to retire, with his pension secure for the future."
Kamau scoffed at the apology Ellis received from
Chief White's successor, Steven Conrad. In a May 22, 2012 letter, Chief
Conrad claimed that he was "truly at a loss to explain retired officer
Woolridge's actions and inactions in this matter."
Chief Conrad claimed that "they
(Woolridge's alleged misconduct) do not represent our department's standards or
values. I apologize for his behavior! Your daughter deserved
better!"
His apology did not reference his predecessor's
failure to investigate "Woolridge's actions and inactions," despite
the clear authority to do so. Instead, Chief Conrad appeared to support
former Chief White: "In regards to the internal investigation (which
Ellis sought), Officer Rick Woolridge retired before that investigation even
started. Woolridge's retirement left Chief White with no opportunity to
hold him accountable for his poor behavior."
Meanwhile, he contended, "between the poor
initial responses, the failure to recover any possible suspect DNA during (the)
post sexual assault examination, the inability of your daughter to provide
information about her attacker, the lack of a witness and the significant
passage of time, I do not believe a second investigation would be any more
fruitful or successful than the first one."
In conclusion, he said: "I realize this
response fails to provide closure for either you or your daughter. Once
again, I apologize!"
Policeabuse.com placed three telephone calls to Chief
White for comment for this article. Neither the chief nor his media
relations staff have replied thus far.
Ellis, like Kamau, was unimpressed with Chief
Conrad's apology. "Chief Conrad ought to be fired, he's had ample
opportunity to correct Chief White's refusal to act but has not."
The city of Louisville, Ellis said, "ought to be held liable for officer
Woolridge's misconduct and utter refusal to do anything to aid Salisa, who was
battered and bruised almost beyond recognition."
Louisville Police Department freedom
of information act response
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