A former Leitchfield Police Department officer has been found not guilty of two misdemeanors in a directed verdict.
Ty Whitaker, 26, was accused in January 2024 of two counts of terroristic threatening, a class A misdemeanor. He faced up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
On Monday at Whitaker’s trial in a Grayson County courtroom, after a special prosecutor presented its case, Whitaker’s attorney requested the judge find him not guilty due to a lack of evidence. The special appointed judge from LaRue County agreed there was not enough evidence to continue, thus ending the trial in a directed verdict of not guilty.
(A directed verdict in Kentucky is a ruling by a judge that a jury should not be required to decide a case, and instead the judge will enter a verdict. A judge may grant a directed verdict when they believe that all reasonable minds would reach the same conclusion based on the evidence.)
The two EPOs filed against Whitaker were previously dropped.
Whitaker, who had just completed his rookie year with LPD when the accusations surfaced, was an active member of the police department: In December 2023, K105 reported that Whitaker won the Leitchfield Police Department’s 2023 Impaired Driving Enforcement award. He recorded 15 impaired driving arrests and made countless felony collars during his first year as a police officer.
Prior to becoming a police officer, he served as a deputy jailer at the Grayson County Detention Center from 2020-2022 where he was a member of the Special Response Team.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
