Brett Hankison Sued for Sexual Assault

Image Courtesy of CNN.com

Image Courtesy of CNN.com

Jasmine Whitfield, Staff Writer

Former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison who was fired for the shooting of Breonna Taylor finds himself in the negative spotlight one again. Hankison is now being sued by Margo Borders, a 22-year-old law student who claims he sexually assaulted her. The alleged assault is said to have happened in 2018 when Hankison gave intoxicated Borders a ride home from the bar in which he was employed as a security guard.

The lawsuit claims that Hankison used his badge and his former job as a police officer to become friendly with Borders. This lawsuit was filed through Jefferson County Circuit Court in Louisville. “Borders’ lawyers claim Hankison left her “physically injured and mentally battered”. The lawsuit continues in saying that this is a pattern with Hankison. They claim that “Brett Hankison is a 44-year-old sexual predator. For years, he has used his police uniform and secondary nightclub employment as mechanisms to prey on innocent women who are two decades younger than him”.

The lawsuit further explains that that night “Margo left Hankison on the couch and went to her room to change. She’d had plenty to drink and went to sleep rather than returning to the living room,” and then “While Margo was unconscious, Hankison went into her room, stripped off his clothes and willfully, intentionally, painfully and violently sexually assaulted Margo.”

Boarders first accused Hankison in June of 2020 posting this to her Facebook page “It took me months to process what had happened and to realize that it wasn’t my fault and I didn’t ask for that to happen by allowing him to give me a ride home… I never reported him out of fear of retaliation. I had no proof of what happened, and he had the upper hand because he was a police officer. Who do you call when the person who assaulted you is a police officer? Who were they going to believe? I knew it wouldn’t be me”.

The lawyers who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Boarders also represented the family of Breonna Taylor, which resulted in a 12-million-dollar settlement with the City of Louisville. They say that Borders has only good intentions and just wants to “hold Brett accountable,” for his actions. Will Hankison be held accountable for his alleged actions? We will just have to wait and see as this lawsuit unfolds.