Council approves suspensions for one officer, deadlocks on another after bodycam access concerns

The Lexington Fayette Urban County Council on Oct. 9 accepted disciplinary actions for one Lexington Police Department officer after two separate internal investigations and deadlocked on a separate recommended suspension for another officer accused of unauthorized access to body-worn camera footage.

Council members voted to accept Chief Weathers' recommended discipline for Officer Adam Servacio: a 160-hour (four-week) unpaid suspension tied to a June 30 incident and a 40-hour (one-week) unpaid suspension tied to a July 23 incident. The council did not approve the chief's recommendation for Officer John McFaul, a proposed three-day unpaid suspension for accessing evidence.com footage from an officer-involved shooting without authorization; a roll-call poll produced a tie and the motion failed.

The dispute focused on two issues: whether the proposed punishments matched the misconduct and whether additional training, counseling or technology safeguards are needed to prevent improper access to sensitive footage. Chief Weathers told the council the investigations found some of the allegations against Servacio were substantiated and that Servacio had accepted the 160-hour suspension for the June 30 matter and the 40-hour suspension for the July 23 matter.

"At the conclusion of the investigation, the employee met with me and accepted a four-week suspension, 160…