The WAVE Troubleshooters - Behind the Investigation

WAVE News Troubleshooters Natalia Martinez and John Boel discuss how to move the LMPD forward after the chief resigns and sexual harassment lawsuits emerge. 

WAVE News Troubleshooters Natalia Martinez and John Boel preview the WAVE Originals ’23 Seconds: The Louisville Mass Shooting’, a documentary on the tragedy at Old National Bank.  

WAVE News Troubleshooters Natalia Martinez and John Boel discuss a lawsuit filed against the store that sold the weaponry used in the mass shooting at Old National Bank.  

After multiple investigations exposing the dangerous condition inside of Louisville’s jail, Troubleshooter Natalia Martinez checks back on the facility. She sits down with the new director for a brutally honest talk about the challenges he faced, the lives that were lost and the lives that are now being saved. 

In this episode of Behind the Investigation, WAVE Troubleshooter Natalia Martinez sits down with the lead detective of the Brice Rhodes triple murder case. Louisville Homicide Detective Aaron Tinelli gives insight into his mind after getting the call, processing the scene and interviewing Brice Rhodes. 

A lot is going on outside University Hospital, a level-one trauma center. Medical helicopters, ambulances, police, even arrests. But on Oct. 4 at dusk, something else caught the eye of an arriving ambulance crew.

WAVE News Troubleshooter John Boel takes you inside his undercover investigations into suspected drug houses in Louisville. He walks you through his methods, training, and the safety precautions he takes. He also details how police respond to complaints about drugs and violence in the neighborhoods he investigates. 

 It is one of the most traumatic experiences a person out on the town can experience, yet investigating date-rape cases is extremely difficult. WAVE News troubleshooter Natalia Martinez investigates Nowhere Bar to see if they were holding true to their promise of keeping customers safe. 

This story began December 1 at 5 p.m. with a phone call to our newsroom from a horrified University Hospital employee. The employee claimed security had just wheeled an elderly woman all the way out to the corner of Hancock and Ali, just off hospital property, dumped the woman out of the wheelchair on the sidewalk and left. 

Gary Thompson doesn’t like talking to me anymore. To understand why, we have to go back to 2014.“I appreciate you guys busting me,” Thompson said. “Y’all really good at it. I average about $100,000 a year doing this.”While Lexington police held a press conference to warn people about a guy faking a mental disability act to rake in big bucks, that guy was demonstrating it right outside.“Mm... mm... money,” Thompson stuttered, then smiled and straightened up. “I gotta go y’all, gotta make some money.”He was jailed and chased out of places all around Kentucky and earned the nickname, “The Bogus Beggar.”“If you can help me whenever I ask for money I won’t act mental,” Thompson said in a story that aired years ago.

“When I walked in that jail, it was chills that shot all through my body,” Ta’Neasha Chappell’s mother, Lavita McClain, told WAVE 3 News.Chappell’s family said Ta’Neasha warned them something was going to happen to her in there when she would call from the jail.“You’re supposed to be safe and come out alive,” Chappell’s sister, Ronesha Murrell, said.Jackson County’s population is 44,000, according to the latest U.S. Census. That’s where Chappell landed after a multi-county car chase and a shoplifting charge.“That’s what she would always say,” her mother recalled. “I did the crime. I gotta do the time.”But her stay ended up costing her family a lifetime of pain.“This could have happened to anybody,” McClain said.Chappell died July 16, but her family still doesn’t know how. The autopsy and toxicology reports will take a few more weeks, their attorneys, Sam Aguiar and Lonita Baker, said. But one thing the attorneys do believe is that she suffered at the jail for more than 12 hours.

When WAVE Troubleshooter John Boel walked up to a home at South 26th Street and West Madison Street, people were jumping fences or dashing to their cars to get away from him.“I’m John Boel with WAVE,” Boel said. Hey, don’t jump over the fence. Hold on, I came here to ask you guys a couple questions. Sir, what is everybody coming here to buy?”The answer began with emails from two different neighbors claiming that children can no longer play on the streets at 26th and Madison because there are several crack houses there with a window where others on crack are selling and smoking it on porches, alleys, and everywhere else nearby. They claimed nothing happened when the situation was taken through the proper channels.Boel went undercover on Madison to the east side of 26th Street, where he recorded people standing in front of a church next to a “stop the crime” sign. They attended to a busy drive-up lane of people pulling up, doing hand-to-hand transactions through the windows, while a lookout kept an eye on them.

Keyshaun Stewart was on probation when he was charged with killing a highway maintenance worker, Fred O’Bannon, and shooting LMPD sergeant Chris Lane on November 19.An exclusive WAVE News Troubleshooter Investigation uncovered that shortly after being charged in Jefferson County, Stewart racked up a new felony in Tennessee.Natalia take you Behind the Investigation

Roger Burdette, the driver of the MSD truck who slammed into LMPD detective Deidre Mengedoht’s vehicle, was found guilty on all counts in a unanimous decision by the jury, and Troubleshooter Natalia Martinez was there with complete coverage.Burdette was found guilty of murder, four counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, and failure to give right of way to a stopped emergency vehicle.The 27-year sentence for Burdette’s murder charge will be served concurrently with five year sentences for Burdette’s wanton endangerment charges.Natalia takes you Behind the Investigation.

A music manager of the famous Louisville rapper EST G, or George Stone, has been arrested by the FBI, WAVE 3 News Troubleshooters have learned.Eric Mosley was taken into custody Thursday afternoon. He is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after the FBI said he was found with guns and drugs.If convicted, he faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.According to the FBI, their Safe Streets Task Force caught up with Mosley at a Louisville hotel and served a warrant. They said Mosley had a kilogram of cocaine, $100,000 cash, an AK-47-style pistol and a stolen handgun.During a WAVE 3 News Troubleshooters investigation, it was discovered that Mosley was also one of the people behind a $300,000 full-cash bond for the person accused of killing 3-year-old Trinity Randolph and her father, Brandon Waddles, in August 2020.Kevon Lawless, 24 is now facing the death penalty in relation to their deaths. Once the bond was paid, Lawless was released on home incarceration. He would later be brought back into jail for a separate parole violation.Lawless’ release sparked outrage among the community and the families of the victims. Randolph’s family discovered Lawless was out of jail through social media videos Lawless posted, bragging about being out. The Randolph family said the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections had incorrectly insisted Lawless was still in custody days after his release.WAVE 3 News obtained a copy of the checks that added up to the $300,000 for Lawless’ bond. It was discovered $135,000 was paid for Mosley and Stone’s business called Everybody Shine Together, LLC.According to the Kentucky Secretary of State, both Stone and Mosley are members of the LLC, which abbreviated is EST, part of Stone’s stage name.Stone has worked with music big-hitters like Jay-Z and Yo Gotti. Gotti filmed a music video with Stone in Louisville shortly after signing him.Stone was named Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month in July by Billboard. He’s appeared on national shows such as Jimmy Kimmel and performed on other nationally syndicated stages.In a song released by Stone on July 21, 2021 called Sky Dweller, he raps about bailing Lawless, or Lil’ Kada, out of jail. Lawless was originally given a $1 million bond at his arraignment.“They want one mil’ for Lil’ Kada, know I’m comin’ to get you, baby,” Stone raps. “Know my heart might get me killed, but it got me here, so risks, I’m takin’”Lawless has pleaded not guilty to the killings.Mosley made his first appearance in federal court on Friday afternoon.The FBI said Mosley’s arrest was fruit from Project Safe Neighborhoods or PSN, which aims to focus on the most violent offenders. PSN is an effort by the Department of Justice to reduce violent crime. The Safe Streets Task Force, which investigated the case, includes FBI special agents and investigators from the Louisville Metro Police Department, Nelson County Sheriff’s Office, Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office, and Homeland Security investigations.Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.

A mourning mother insisted that the people who sold her son a  fatal heroin dose were still dealing drugs at a house on 27th Street and Slevin Street in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood. She said she couldn’t get the police to do anything about it, so she called WAVE 3 Troubleshooter John Boel. He takes you Behind the Investigation, where he picked up his camera, and confronted the dealers.Watch the full investigation here: https://bit.ly/3G4LgZP