Kentucky city worker viewed porn ahead of fatal police crash
Published 10:09 pm Tuesday, June 1, 2021
A city sewer worker had been viewing pornography on his phone before he crashed into a Louisville police cruiser, killing an officer in 2018, according to new court filings in the case.
The details in Louisville Det. Deidre Mengedoht’s death were made public in a Monday court filing from prosecutors, the Courier-Journal reported.
The documents said former Metropolitan Sewer District worker Roger Burdette was driving his work truck when he used his phone to visit a pornographic website at 2:12 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2018.
Burdette crashed into Mengedoht’s cruiser while she was conducting a traffic stop on Interstate 64 at 2:17 p.m. The internet browser on his phone was closed at 2:20 p.m., according to an analysis of the phone and its data. The documents said he had looked at similar videos that day while he was working.
Burdette was charged with murder, four counts of wanton endangerment, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and failing to give the right of way to a stopped emergency vehicle. He was fired after the crash.
A jury trial is scheduled for July.