{Louisville, Kentucky}...Police informant LeBron Gaither got into a car for a controlled drug buy in July 1996 with a man named Jason Noel, unaware that someone tipped Noel to his role as a police informant in Taylor County as the two traveled from Taylorsville to Casey County, where Gaither was tortured, stabbed, beaten, dragged and killed. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the state's Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and state police can't be held liable for the death of Gaither. Judge Michelle Keller wrote for a divided court that while the discretion and judgment of the detectives in the case was "tragically flawed," their actions were protected by governmental immunity. The decision upholds a 2011 ruling by Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate to overturn a $168,000 award by the Kentucky Board of Claims to Gaither's family.
