Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor

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Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor​


Kentucky Public Radio | By Sylvia Goodman

Published December 19, 2024 at 12:51 PM EST

Body camera footage shows the moment an LMPD officer hands a woman in labor a citation for unlawful camping as she waits for an ambulance.

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KPR

Body camera footage shows the moment an LMPD officer hands a woman in labor a citation for unlawful camping as she waits for an ambulance.


She told a police officer she was in labor. The Louisville Metro Police Department lieutenant cited her for unlawful camping as the ambulance arrived. She had a baby later that day.​


The head of Louisville Metro Police Department’s Downtown Area Patrol approached a pregnant woman standing beside a bare mattress beneath an overpass in downtown Louisville at 9 a.m. on a rainy day in late September.

Body camera footage obtained by Kentucky Public Radio shows that as Lt. Caleb Stewart walked closer, the woman yelled, “I might be going into labor, is that okay?”

Her water had broken, she said. “I’m leaking out,” she told him. She grabbed a blanket and a few personal effects as a bright orange city dump truck pulled up to remove the makeshift bed.

The woman had no phone. She said her husband went to call an ambulance, so Stewart called one for her. But as she walked toward the street to wait for help, Stewart yelled at her to stop.

“Am I being detained?” she asked.

“Yes, you’re being detained,” he shouted. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”

Stewart was enforcing a new state law that bans street camping — essentially, a person may not sleep, intend to sleep, or set up camp on undesignated public property like sidewalks or underneath overpasses. He has issued the majority of the citations for unlawful camping in Louisville.

Kentucky Public Radio obtained the body camera footage of the citation through an open records request. The woman declined to speak with KPR through her public defender and asked that we not use her name, but said she supports sharing the footage.

As she stood a little ways into the street, waiting for the ambulance, Stewart shouted at her repeatedly to stand next to him.

“You don’t have to holler and you don’t have to push me,” she told him. “I haven’t done anything to you.”

Stewart walked back to his car to write the citation as city workers finished loading the mattress into the garbage truck.

Once in the police vehicle, Stewart narrated to himself as his body camera recorded his comments.

“So I don’t for a second believe that this woman is going into labor,” he said.

He returned to find the woman sitting on the ground, with legs askew and labored breathing, waiting for the ambulance. Stewart hands her a citation, and she balls it up and tosses it aside as the ambulance arrives to take her to the hospital.

“You’re all horrible people,” she said, as she got to her feet. “I’m glad y’all got this job to f*** with the homeless and not help society.”

Later that day she gave birth to her child, according to her attorney, Public Defender Ryan Dischinger. He said both the woman and her son are healthy three months later, and the family is now in shelter without assistance from LMPD or the court system.

“The reality for her, and for anyone who’s homeless in Kentucky, is that they’re constantly and unavoidably breaking this law,” Dischinger said. “What she needed was help and compassion and instead she was met with violence.”

Now, she’s waiting for a late January trial date on her citation, which could carry a fine and requires the people charged with street camping, who are mostly homeless individuals, to appear before a judge.

Please note, this video shows a woman in distress and contains swearing.



Enforcing Kentucky’s street camping ban


In his police report, Stewart did not reference the pregnancy or her immediate departure in an ambulance. He simply wrote: “Ofc. observed listed subject camping underneath the interstate bridge at listed location by utilizing camping paraphernalia (mattress, blanket, pillow as bedding). Subject has previously been warned about this statue area is not designated as a camping or sleeping area.”

An LMPD spokesperson said members of the Safe and Healthy Street Initiative had twice previously offered the woman “resources for shelter,” and that she declined them. Both of those outreach attempts occurred before the street camping ban went into effect, according to city officials. They said officers take situations “involving vulnerable individuals, including those experiencing a medical emergency, very seriously.”

“Without the officer’s intervention and call for EMS, it is possible the baby would have been born without medical care. We hope she and her baby are able to receive the care and resources they need going forward.”

The LMPD spokesperson said the department supports officers “using discretion” and “understand everyone may not agree with those decisions.”

Kevin Trager, a spokesperson for Mayor Craig Greenberg said, “We are thankful LMPD called an ambulance, and the baby was born in a hospital with medical care. This is why our homeless services staff work hard to offer support and shelter to those in need. Unfortunately, there are people living on our streets who turn down these offers of help even though they desperately need them.”

In the months since the Kentucky General Assembly made street camping a crime — a citation on first offense and misdemeanor on subsequent offenses — dozens of Louisvillians have been charged. Many have had bench warrants issued against them for failing to appear on their court date, which advocates expected and feared would be an outcome.

In January, Stewart received a commendation from the department for responding to “issues related to the houseless population” with “compassion and professionalism toward everyone.” As the Courier Journal first reported, Stewart is facing a 20-day unpaid suspension for helping to cover up a subordinate's use of force against a man likely experiencing homelessness last year — a suspension he is now appealing.

Kentucky Public Radio received two-and-a-half hours of Stewart’s body camera footage in response to the open records request, including Stewart’s decision to cite a woman apparently in labor.

For most of the footage, Stewart drives between overpasses, waking up homeless individuals sleeping there to escape the rain, starting at 7:30 am. He visits a half-dozen overpasses before 9 a.m., beaming his flashlight and nudging people awake before issuing formal warnings to at least 10 people sleeping or camping outside.

Homelessness in Louisville is increasing, according to a Coalition for the Homeless point-in-time survey conducted in January. This year’s survey showed another 10.5% increase over 2023. That’s 1,728 people who were experiencing homelessness during just that one week in January.

In a WRDB profile of his work two weeks ago, Stewart said that handing out food and tents to the homeless may encourage them to continue their behavior, countering that "it's important we create that bit of friction of people to maybe help inspire them to make other decisions."

The sponsors of the Safer Kentucky Act, which included the street camping ban, say the ban is meant to encourage people without housing to seek out resources instead of sleeping on the streets, especially addiction recovery services.

“Officers always present the options: 1) move on to a shelter or a designated camping location, 2) go to rehab, or 3) get cited,” GOP Rep. John Hodgson of Fisherville previously wrote in a statement. “These clear choices and related consequences are having the desired positive impact on the community, and the unsheltered population.”

According to the body camera footage, while the woman was offered and accepted alternate services in the form of an ambulance ride, it did not keep her from getting cited.

The dangers of being homeless and pregnant


Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Republican from Fruit Hill who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, was one of the bill’s more vocal opponents. When he learned of the citation against a woman in labor, he called it “deplorable.”

“Where's the humanity in that response? Where is the compassion for human life? Where is the pro-life compassion for the unborn child in that response?” Westerfield said.

Westerfield fought to add an amendment to the bill that would require services be offered to an individual before a citation be offered. He said he was initially imagining homelessness services, but he said it would also have required emergency medical care in lieu of a citation. He eventually withdrew the amendment, saying he didn’t have the support for it in his caucus.

“It's brutal and unnecessarily so,” Westerfield said. “If they need to cite her or if she's done this and been unlawfully in a public place this way many times or multiple times, then that should condemn society’s failure to provide help for her before it should result in a criminal process against her.”

Jesse Rabinowitz, with the National Homelessness Law Center, said the footage is an extreme example of the harm anti-camping laws can have. Several other states and cities — including Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia — have enacted sweeping anti-camping laws.

“This shows that the police have no place in responding to homelessness, and that these laws do nothing to help people who are experiencing homelessness,” Rabinowitz said. “They only kick people when they're down and make homelessness worse.”

According to Dr. Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California San Francisco, the dangers for homeless pregnant women are many, even if one doesn’t take into account laws that criminalize unsheltered homelessness.

“If you’ve ever been pregnant or had a loved one who was pregnant, think about the advice you get. Get lots of sleep, get support. Don't walk too much if you are not feeling well,” Kushel said. “All of these things are nearly impossible to do when you're experiencing homelessness, and they're worsened by the threat that, if you lay down and close your eyes, you do so under the threat of arrest.”

The woman in the body camera footage tells Stewart she isn’t due to give birth for just over a month. Some research shows that homelessness is associated with preterm birth, Kushel said. Giving birth prematurely has been linked with a number of poor health outcomes for both the mother and child — from higher rates of learning disabilities to poor lung development. And it's also incredibly dangerous in the postpartum period.

“You add the stresses of homelessness, the sleep deprivation, the fear, the shame, the stigma, the lack of access to health care and you really are escalating the risk for the mom,” Kushel said. “And you can imagine the stress it places on an infant. It's hard to imagine a worse place for a newborn than to be in a crowded homeless shelter or to be outdoors.”

The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, which Kushel co-authored, found that more than a quarter of women ages 18 to 44 had experienced a pregnancy during their current episode of homelessness.

In the body camera footage, as Stewart drove away from the scene, he narrates the encounter, justifying his choice to cite her to himself. He says that, if he had let her go without citing her, it would “set the precedent” that people could claim a medical emergency to get out of a ticket.

“As much as, like the casual observer who, you know, believes everything that lady said, would think that it maybe wasn't the most appropriate way to handle it, I'm very confident that was the appropriate way to handle it,” Stewart says, “with the exception of perhaps that maybe I yelled at her a little too quickly when she was in the street.”

This story has been updated to include additional details.

Reporters Joe Sonka and Roberto Roldan contributed to this reporting.

State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
 

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1/52
Brian Goldstone

An unhoused woman in *active labor*—her water had just broken—was ticketed by Louisville police for sleeping outside.

What a cruel, cruel country.

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2/52
‪Brian Goldstone‬ ‪@brian-goldstone.bsky.social‬

"As she walked toward the street to wait for help, [the cop] yelled at her to stop. 'Am I being detained?' she asked.

'Yes, you’re being detained,' he shouted. 'You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.'”

Absolutely revolting.

3/52
‪Brian Goldstone‬ ‪@brian-goldstone.bsky.social‬

“If you’ve ever been pregnant, think about the advice you get... All of these things are nearly impossible to do when you're experiencing homelessness, and they're worsened by the threat that, if you lay down and close your eyes, you do so under the threat of arrest.” - Margot Kushel MD (@mkushel.bsky.social)

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4/52
‪Brian Goldstone‬ ‪@brian-goldstone.bsky.social‬

crucial, in-depth reporting by Sylvia Goodman (@sylviaruthg.bsky.social)

5/52
‪praying mantis‬ ‪@gentlem.bsky.social‬

Thank you. 🙏🏾

6/52
‪Garden, o Caramelinho no céu com 💎‬ ‪@gardendog.bsky.social‬



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7/52
‪kd1998.bsky.social‬ ‪@kd1998.bsky.social‬

Hey Kentucky …so this is what pro life looks like?

8/52
‪Resilient Renee‬ ‪@01renee01.bsky.social‬

This is disgusting and embarrassing! My heart hurts for this lady!
LMPD has a history of inhumane treatment and scandalous acts ! They stay in the national news and have earned their bad reputation! Police have thrown drinks on the homeless people among so many other things they have done!

9/52
‪ChilliRose‬ ‪@chillirose.bsky.social‬

They stole her RV so she had nowhere to live then they stole her fukking mattress so she had no where to live. Then they fine her for having nowhere to live. They won’t let her end a pregnancy so she has to give birth but they also don’t believe her when she does..

10/52
‪Serena soul‬ ‪@serenasoul.bsky.social‬

GOD DAMMIT YOU MOTHERfukkING HORRIBLE PEOPLE!
HOW COULD YOU BE SO GOD DAMM CRUEL TO A HELPLESS PREGNANT HOMELESS WOMAN!!
THIS IS SO fukkING HORRIBLE! 🤬🤬🤬🤬

11/52
‪darwinwoodka.bsky.social‬ ‪@darwinwoodka.bsky.social‬

This officer needs to be fukking fired and the police dept should be sued. This is horrible.

12/52
‪Caliwaikiki‬ ‪@caliwaikiki.bsky.social‬

Why is it so hard to see the human being past the crime? It would be more beneficial to communities to see those living on the street as a person who needs the communities help. Instead of arrest, jail & and fines, try community service during the day & a hotel voucher for the night & food coupons

13/52
‪A.J. Ponder‬ ‪@ponderbooks.com‬

And the sick thing is that treating homeless people as human beings is far cheaper than incarcerating them.
Absolutely shocking.
The people running America need a heart transplant.

14/52
‪Caliwaikiki‬ ‪@caliwaikiki.bsky.social‬

Sad thing is that it is common sense with a bit of humility.

15/52
‪Abby Koch‬ ‪@abbykoch.bsky.social‬

This makes my heart hurt. I spent more than a decade in research and advocacy about maternal mortality in this country and Republicans just keep shoving the fact that they give ZERO fukkS about women’s lives in our faces. I don’t know if we’re failures or if we’ve prevented worse from happening tbh

16/52
‪Jennie Kermode‬ ‪@jenniekermode.bsky.social‬

I'm sure you're not failures. All such efforts, even if they only help a few people, even if it's only for a little while, matter. Never lose sight of that.

17/52
‪unawarewolf.bsky.social‬ ‪@unawarewolf.bsky.social‬

This is the shythole country. Trump isn’t anomaly. He’s the embodiment of the character of the American people.

18/52
‪Jack‬ ‪@jtotheac.bsky.social‬

Just how Jesus envisioned it.

19/52
‪lennyemmed.bsky.social‬ ‪@lennyemmed.bsky.social‬

Literally no crib for bed.

20/52
‪wdust00‬ ‪@wdust00.bsky.social‬

This fcking cop with no medical degree decides that a woman is NOT in labor when she says she is and her water broke... I can think of a number of things I would like to see happen to this cop.

21/52
‪Arsenault‬ ‪@ea75.bsky.social‬

How can any policeman 👮‍♂️ actually be so heartless and stupid? And worse, pretty sure there is a GOP senator or governor out there in Trumpland that will say he did the right thing!

22/52
‪K Howell‬ ‪@kathyhowell.bsky.social‬

What do you expect from Louisville police?! Wasn't that the town where they murdered Breonna Taylor?

23/52
‪Cutbush‬ ‪@cutbush.bsky.social‬

In my feed, I have a woman in labor being ticketed by police in Kentuky and NY police locking arms to protect Amazon from striking employees. The vulnerable need protection,not the billionaires. They can afford their own protection. Greed is disgusting.

24/52
‪Brandon‬ ‪@goldensama.bsky.social‬

The police have always existed to protect the ruling class.

25/52
‪Cutbush‬ ‪@cutbush.bsky.social‬

The evidence hasn't been this glaring in a long time.

26/52
‪Brandon‬ ‪@goldensama.bsky.social‬

It might get even more glaring when Trump, Elon and the rest of the billionaires start raiding the coffers.

27/52
‪Cutbush‬ ‪@cutbush.bsky.social‬

It's about to become absolutely crazy. Those a$$holes have no respect for anyone or anything. When the world becomes uninhabitable, I hope they're blamed and all of their rockets to Mars explode.

28/52
‪Mindy Tucker‬ ‪@withreservation.bsky.social‬

stuff like this is why we’re confused when the GOP call themselves pro-life.

29/52
‪Brandon‬ ‪@goldensama.bsky.social‬

They only care about you before you’re born; then you’re just another disposable worker, and if you’re not working they view you as garbage.

30/52
‪K Howell‬ ‪@kathyhowell.bsky.social‬

They only care about the unborn if they are white and even then, too many Rs have paid for abortions. They're hypocrites. Even the fetus defenders do not support life outside the womb much. Many of them seem to want kids for their own ego, more than for other reasons.

31/52
‪Mike Friedman‬ ‪@mfriedmannola.bsky.social‬

Bet you $5000 those cops claim to be "christians."

No, $50,000.

32/52
‪jakobgamertsfelder.bsky.social‬ ‪@jakobgamertsfelder.bsky.social‬

Was her name Mary?

33/52
‪Introvert Collin‬ ‪@introvertcollin.bsky.social‬

That is so cold-hearted, I’d have thought it was ordered by de facto President -elect Musk

34/52
‪Astroball‬ ‪@astroball.bsky.social‬

Greatest country in the world huh?

35/52
‪Crimsoncloak Esquire‬ ‪@crimsoncloak.bsky.social‬

It will take enormous structural change to make it a different kind of country. Everyone in power will have to be stripped of it. Massive cultural institutions that people take for granted will have to be reconsidered.

36/52
‪Brandon‬ ‪@goldensama.bsky.social‬

No pregnant woman should be homeless. No one should be homeless when we have an excess of empty houses in this country.

And these cops are just another reminder of ACAB.

37/52
‪nba-014.bsky.social‬ ‪@nba-014.bsky.social‬

Louisville seems like it’s the USA’s shythole. The area is always dealing with crooked police.

38/52
‪Mr. Sensitive‬ ‪@ergasiophobic.bsky.social‬

Blue Cities are the worst.

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39/52
‪Relatable Bear‬ ‪@relatablebear.bsky.social‬

You really think you did something here huh?

40/52
‪Mr. Sensitive‬ ‪@ergasiophobic.bsky.social‬



41/52
‪Relatable Bear‬ ‪@relatablebear.bsky.social‬

So in your mind, in a “Red” city, the cops would’ve been kind to this woman? WTF is your point here?

42/52
‪Mr. Sensitive‬ ‪@ergasiophobic.bsky.social‬

Don’t shoot the messenger

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43/52
‪Relatable Bear‬ ‪@relatablebear.bsky.social‬

The below picture demonstrates the level of right-wing bias in the Daily Mail. Also, still, WTF does any of that have to do with cops abusing a pregnant woman?

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44/52
‪Logan‬ ‪@loganfbm.bsky.social‬

No room in the inn, I guess

45/52
‪Domainophile‬ ‪@domainophile.bsky.social‬

Not only is that neither "protecting" nor "serving" the public, it's the god damn opposite. Any country that keeps a police force that treats its people this way is sick.

46/52
‪natashafionalawson.bsky.social‬ ‪@natashafionalawson.bsky.social‬

The Bible Belt, ladies and gentlemen.

47/52
‪Exhausted Resister-‬ ‪@apj813.bsky.social‬

WTAF? Take her to a hospital. Show some compassion.

48/52
‪Pro-Democracy Warrior 🟧☮️🇺🇦❁‬ ‪@truthcomes1st.bsky.social‬

If there's a God, I hope he loses everything from his job to the roof he sleeps under. Sadly, there isn't one and this guy will get a standing ovation in the police union.

49/52
‪Pineapple. Ducks lined up?🍷🍿🤣👸🏾‬ ‪@krizzypower.bsky.social‬

What an a$$hole and what an evil law. Kentucky is fukked up

50/52
‪ghall202.bsky.social‬ ‪@ghall202.bsky.social‬

90% of the police officers are trumpers with little or no education they prove it by not supporting the police in the j6 insurrection the judicial system is in-ruin why should we pay any attention to what they have to say the rich don’t they are afraid of the rich and political powerful.

51/52
‪AnnieOPopoAgie 💙💙💙‬ ‪@annieopopoagie.bsky.social‬

WTH

52/52
‪cosmic snorer‬ ‪@blurplebleb.bsky.social‬

I doubt any would have the nerve but local churches should really think about adding a cop writing a ticket to their Nativity scenes

To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
 

ReturnOfJudah

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With how expensive housing is, I could never dispense these kinda tickets if I was a pig :francis:
white folks told us "this is the season for holiday cheer and everyone is in a good mood

reality is "we just a big ass race war election" ain't these same races that's at each other's neck cool now because of a NON RACIST CAC male is coming to bring gifts to all!


More reality, homeless people ain't got no fat cac giving them shyt, and both sides of this dumb ass election don't give a fukk about them.

You think that cop was in the holiday spirit, willing to help out a pregnant homeless lady in need?

HELL NO. This GOOFY got a quota to meet at the end of the month, and he wants that bonus too for his kids.

Rich people pay alot of money to make sure cops fill up prisons with "certain people". And they want a return in their investments
 

Roger king

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In a sane country that looks after its citizenry , this woman would be provided and cared for, paid healthcare services for her and her expectant child, a warm bed with sustenance and social welfare amenities to get her back on her feet, not being cited for the crime of being poor and destitute.
 
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