Problem Solvers investigate what happens after arrests at a drug house

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Over the past decade, I’ve conducted dozens of undercover investigations into drug houses that terrorized neighborhoods and forced businesses to flee. I showed my video to the police. And I put them out of business myself with a camera and full TV exposure. And while the connection between drugs and the violence crisis is strong, the response I often hear from police is that it’s not worth their time because the justice system lets them get away with it time and time again.

“The reality is, what’s going to happen if we arrest these individuals?,” said former LMPD Chief Erika Shields in response to one of my reports. “They walk straight out the back door of the prison.”

That’s why I decided to follow the police’s claim. I returned to some of my drug investigations, where police were making arrests to investigate how the suspects fared when they arrived at the courthouse.

Let’s start with 2023. I received a complaint about: “a group of guys selling drugs every day in front of 1026 South 4th…one with a gun in his pocket with an extended clip. A bit cheeky.”

Sure enough, there they were, personal exchanges, and one man pretended to fire a gun while appearing to have a gun under his shirt sticking out of his waistband, and another man wore a navy blue fanny pack.

LMPD responded and reported they fled on foot throwing a loaded Smith and Wesson 9-millimeter. Officers arrested the man wearing a navy blue fanny pack. According to an arrest warrant, the fanny pack contained “several different narcotics, all packaged in small plastic baggies.”

His name was Anderyou Johnson.

Let’s see how he fares in our criminal justice system: Johnson was charged on July 20 for that incident with aggravated possession of opiates, meth and marijuana, drug paraphernalia and fleeing police. On August 3, his $1,000 bond was posted and Johnson was placed on home confinement. The court noted that he went “AWOL” a month later. On September 18, Johnson was charged with escape. He was given a probationary period for this a month later.

On charges of possession of opiates, cocaine, marijuana and fleeing police, Johnson pleaded guilty and avoided jail time by being placed on diversion.

How did the diversion go? Six months later, he was charged with assault and possession of a gun by a convicted felon after a shooting on the same block: 1032 South 4th Street. The shooting victim said Johnson “looked at him awkwardly,” according to an arrest warrant. The victim said he heard three gunshots and saw Johnson running away. That’s when he said he realized he had been shot.

An LMPD officer said they were able to identify Johnson because he is known to regularly hang out at the location.

In 2022, they jumped the fence as they fled the most active drug trafficking house I have ever uncovered. As many as 40 people an hour lined up outside to buy something from a house at 26th and Madison, then fired crackling crack pipes down the block and fired gunshots into the nearby senior apartment. Five days after that report aired, a special member of the LMPD swooped in and arrested Tarron Moss right outside his door for drug dealing and being a convicted felon with a gun. How has Moss fared in our criminal justice system? First, when Moss was arrested in 2013 for a slew of burglaries, everything was changed to distraction.

He messed up, so they nullified his diversion and gave him his original five-year sentence. A year later he was already released on parole. That was followed by heroin possession, for which he was placed on probation. Moss pleaded guilty to attempted escape, for which he was placed on probation. A charge of heroin possession was subsequently filed, for which he received one day in jail. Then a charge for a convicted felon with a gun.

Three months later and five days after my drug report at 26th and Madison, Moss was arrested there. Police noted that he was already wanted. According to an arrest warrant, he had two large baggies of suspected heroin and a large amount of U.S. currency in his jacket pocket, along with two handguns in the passenger floor where he was sitting.

Moss was charged with heavy trafficking of fentanyl, meth and possession of a handgun. His bail was set at $10,000 cash, but was paid by the Bail Project. So Moss came out of prison again.

At a subsequent scheduled court appearance on August 31, the court clerk confirmed to WAVE News that Moss had not shown up, so the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

“I’ve seen both sides for a long time,” attorney Leland Hulbert said.

Hulbert was the perfect person to talk about this because, after years of working as a prosecutor on cases like this in Louisville, he is now a defense attorney.

“The solution to the drug problem is so confusing across the country,” Hulbert said. “They say 70% to 80% of your crimes are the result of drug crimes. I believe that. I think that’s true. It’s a problem that has had no solution since I’ve been practicing. I don’t think you can arrest or jail your way to make things safer. I think that’s a popular solution. I don’t think it really works. But you have to draw the line somewhere.”

“What I see is the person I’ve stopped 10, 15, 20 times, and I say stop this lifestyle, and then suddenly I’m called to the scene where they were shot and killed,” said LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey at a recent community meeting. “I don’t see the big impact of what mass incarceration is doing to Black communities because I see the problem right in front of me.”

Louisville’s police chief is getting pressure from all angles on this issue.

“How do you deal with what you should be doing and the reality of what ultimately happens to these people?” I asked him after the meeting.

“I 100% understand the feeling: Why do they do it when they turn around and come right back out?” he said. “But if I can just interrupt that crime cycle for a few hours, that could be the chance that that person had to kill someone in the meantime, or that could be the gun that they’re now having a hard time getting back. commit that violent crime.”

“I don’t really see it getting any better,” Hulbert said. “I see the laws changing. I see the medications changing. But the people who live in lower-income neighborhoods that you researched and found will start selling right away. What are they going to do differently? They don’t have a job. Have no skills. They hang out. Get a misdemeanor. Nobody’s going to hire them. So they have nothing to do but hang around and possibly sell drugs.”

Moss was eventually arrested and given a five-year prison sentence. His “expected time to serve” was just over two years. He’ll be out on parole in six weeks.

I requested an interview with the Chief Circuit Judge in Jefferson County regarding this report. I was told that the canons of legal ethics do not allow this.