Code Enforcement Board upholds reckless-driving exhibition citation; vehicle impounded 4 months, $1,000 fine

The Louisville Metro Code Enforcement Board found that a vehicle driven by Nolan Lyons committed a reckless‑driving exhibition late the night of March 1 and ordered the vehicle impounded for four months and a $1,000 fine.

Officer Kenneth Lawrence of the Louisville Metro Police Department testified under oath and showed video the board said captured a white Charger performing a burnout, leaving black tire marks across the yellow line and producing smoke while a crowd stood in the roadway near the intersection of Baxter and Highland Avenue. “You can see the black marks on the road here … the crowd that was in the roadway,” Lawrence testified. The officer said the maneuver put people at risk and that he stopped his cruiser to avoid a collision.

Defense counsel Nick Mudd objected to the hearing’s consideration of constitutional issues and described prior stops and a later traffic stop for registration and insurance; the board limited those arguments as outside its jurisdiction and focused on whether the ordinance violation was shown. Nolan Lyons told the board he had been leaving a nearby bar after a fight and said he heard a loud noise he believed might be a gunshot, so he pulled out quickly. “We heard boom … we didn’t know what it was,” Lyons said.

Board members credited the video and officer testimony and found the conditions of the citation met. The board’s presiding member ordered the vehicle impounded for four months and imposed the $1,000 fine; the presiding member told the defense that appellate remedies remain available in district court. The county attorney had recommended an impound of four months and a $1,000 fine, noting the defendant’s limited prior record.

The board directed staff to prepare written findings immediately so the defendant could appeal if he chose to do so. No vote tally was read into the record.

What happens next: the defendant may appeal the board’s finding to district court; the board’s written order will be mailed to parties and placed in the public record.