As a police officer, your duty is to serve and protect the community, not throw drinks at them. A group of Louisville police officers went from an elite unit to dousing random citizens with drinks they threw from their vehicles.
Slushygate started back in 2018 when Louisville Metro Police Department officers started driving around the city “randomly targeting and assaulting civilians” from unmarked vehicles. They would do this by throwing slushies at unsuspecting citizens and recording the attacks on cell phones to share with fellow officers either via group text or “by huddling around phones during breaks.”
The unprovoked attacks happened at least 24 times in less than a year span, between 2018 and 2019. Flynn and Wilson were both part of the unit called VIPER, later changed to Ninth Mobile, which drove unmarked cars tasked with getting guns and drugs off the streets in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
In October 2022, former Ninth Mobile officers Curt Flynn and Bryan Wilson were sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in Slushygate. After an internal investigation, LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel also suspended four officers who knew about the attacks but did not report them, as well as a fifth who acted as a driver for the attacks.
Internal documents showed at least three more Ninth Mobile officers were involved in a text thread where attack videos were shared but quit the force before the end of the investigation. While the attacks were well-known in the unit, nobody seemed to report them.
“I thought this is just some dumb prank stuff that specialty units do,” Detective Joseph Howell said, who received a 10-day suspension. “And everybody seems to be OK with it.”
Other officers suspended for their knowledge of Slushygate were Detective Beau Gadegaard, Detective John Benzing, Detective Jonathan Robbins and Sgt. Kevin Casper.