A trooper with the Kentucky State Police was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for beating a man with a baton during a 2023 traffic stop.
Hayden Kilbourne, 28, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree assault and third-degree terroristic threatening. Attorney General Russell Coleman said Kilbourne not only struck the man with his police baton but also threatened to kill him.
Coleman said Kilbourne injured the man with his baton and made the death threat during the 2023 stop.
On July 28, 2023, Kilbourne and another trooper joined a pursuit involving a stolen vehicle, according to a complaint Kilbourne filed in Franklin Circuit Court. The chase ended on Interstate 71 in Carroll County, where the troopers ran after the suspect through wooded terrain and arrested him.
During the arrest, Kilbourne “used force” to take the suspect into custody, the complaint states. The suspect later sued Kilbourne in Eastern Kentucky District Federal Court, alleging the trooper unnecessarily deployed a Taser and beat him with a baton while he lay defenseless on the ground.
The suspect’s lawsuit says the assault left him with seven stitches in his upper lip, bruises across his face and body, and broken teeth.
Authorities placed Kilbourne on administrative leave the following day. On Aug. 2, officials notified him that they intended to terminate his employment, according to court records.
Coleman said he will not seek probation or shock probation under the plea agreement. Kilbourne must surrender his law enforcement credentials and may not serve as a police officer again.
“‘Backing the Blue,’ means giving our colleagues in law enforcement the benefit of the doubt,” Coleman said in a news release. “However, when someone charged with enforcing the law breaks it, it’s our responsibility to hold them fully accountable.”
What happened in the lawsuit filed by the suspect?
Robert Kidd, who was 20 at the time of the July 2023 incident, initially faced charges including first-degree fleeing or evading police, first-degree wanton endangerment, speeding, resisting arrest, receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana, and buying or possessing marijuana. Court records show he later pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property, first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree fleeing or evading police, and first-degree wanton endangerment. A judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
Kidd is currently incarcerated at the Oldham County Detention Center and is scheduled for release in August 2026, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
In October 2023, Kidd filed a lawsuit in Eastern Kentucky District Federal Court, describing the alleged assault as “malicious, sadistic, and without justification.” He claimed he stopped and raised his hands during the foot chase, but Kilbourne shot him in the back with a Taser and beat him with a baton while standing over him as he lay defenseless.
Kidd is seeking unspecified punitive damages and any additional relief the court deems appropriate. The case remains ongoing.
Kilbourne’s lawsuit
After learning that state police planned to fire him, Kilbourne requested a hearing before a trial board. His complaint states that he asked for the hearing to take place after his criminal case in Carroll Circuit Court concluded, but state police denied that request.
Officials initially scheduled the hearing for Feb. 1, 2024.
Kilbourne also asked that the hearing be held privately to avoid potentially incriminating himself while the criminal case was pending, according to the complaint. When that request was denied, he filed a lawsuit against state police and Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. on Jan. 18, 2024, seeking a court order for a closed hearing.
A week later, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in Kilbourne’s favor and ordered the hearing to proceed in closed session, court records show.
“The Court agrees that the trial board hearing should be conducted in closed session,” Wingate wrote. “However, at the January 24, 2024, hearing, all parties acknowledged that holding the trial board hearing in closed session does not mean the content of the hearing is forever sealed.”
The lawsuit remains active in Franklin Circuit Court, and no hearing date has been scheduled, according to court records.
Leave a Comment