Attorney John Bryan of The Civil Rights Lawyer says the newly released Kentucky State Police bodycam footage shows exactly why former Trooper Hayden Kilbourne ended up losing both his badge and his freedom.
Bryan does not hedge much on that point. Early in his video, he calls the footage “unacceptable,” and he says Kilbourne’s actions were “out of line and rightfully prosecuted.” That is strong language, but after watching the sequence he lays out, it is not hard to understand why he says it that way.
The case goes back to July 28, 2023, when Kentucky State Police pursued a suspect reported to be armed and driving a stolen vehicle. According to Bryan’s recap of the bodycam and official timeline, troopers used a tire deflation device, slowed the vehicle, and forced the chase toward a stop.
The suspect, later identified as Robert Kidd, then got out and ran into a wooded area.
That part of the encounter was obviously dangerous. Bryan acknowledges that plainly. Kidd had fled in a stolen car, was believed to be armed, and was still running from police on foot. In that kind of moment, officers are not dealing with a harmless scene. The law gives them room to use force to stop somebody who is actively fleeing and may still be a threat.
But Bryan’s core argument is that the legal analysis changes the moment that resistance ends.
What The Footage Shows During The Foot Chase
As Bryan walks through the footage, Trooper Kilbourne can be heard yelling repeated commands, but also making threats that stand out immediately. At one point, Kilbourne shouts, “Show me your hands. I will kill you.” He also threatens the suspect again during the chase.
Bryan points to those words not as the constitutional violation by themselves, but as evidence of the trooper’s state of mind. In his view, the threats matter because they help explain what happened next.
Kilbourne eventually deployed his taser, which caused Kidd to fall to the ground. Bryan says that decision, at least at that stage, was likely justified. The suspect was still fleeing, still refusing to stop, and still potentially dangerous.
That is an important point because Bryan is not treating every use of force in the incident as automatically unlawful. He draws a line between the force used to stop Kidd and the force used after Kidd was already down.
Once the taser ended the chase, the bodycam then shows Kilbourne ordering Kidd to show his hands and roll over. But according to Bryan, that is exactly where the footage becomes devastating for the trooper.
Bryan says the suspect appears to comply, or at the very least tries to comply, by showing his hands and extending them outward. Instead of moving to handcuff him, Kilbourne begins striking him repeatedly with a baton in the arms and upper body while continuing to shout commands like “show me your hands.”
That is the moment Bryan keeps returning to.
Why John Bryan Says This Crossed The Legal Line
Bryan frames the case through the usual excessive force analysis under Graham v. Connor: the severity of the crime, the safety threat, and whether the suspect is actively resisting or fleeing.
On the first two points, Bryan says the state had real arguments. Kidd had been involved in a dangerous pursuit, and there was at least some basis to treat him as a potentially armed suspect. But on the third point, Bryan says the bodycam becomes almost impossible for the trooper to explain away.
He argues that once Kidd was on the ground and no longer actively fleeing, the key legal question became whether he was still actively resisting. And under Sixth Circuit law, Bryan notes, officers cannot use injurious force on a suspect who has ceased resisting.
That is where this case falls apart for Kilbourne.
Bryan says the suspect was not fighting back in a way that justified the baton strikes. Instead, he appears to be surrendering, showing his hands, and trying to do what he is being told while being hit at the same time. Bryan even suggests the trooper’s repeated commands may have functioned more like cover for the camera than a real attempt to gain compliance.
That is a brutal accusation, but it explains why Bryan sees the case as different from many of the other police violence videos he covers. In his telling, the footage is unusually clear. There is not much ambiguity once the suspect is down.
And clarity matters.
A lot of excessive force cases turn on blurry video, blocked views, missing audio, or competing accounts. Bryan says that did not happen here. The camera stayed on, and the footage made the beating hard to deny.
The Discipline, The Charges, And The Prison Sentence
Bryan explains that Kentucky State Police first handled the matter administratively. On August 2, 2023, the agency concluded Kilbourne’s conduct amounted to excessive force. Commissioner Phillip Burnett issued an intent to dismiss him.
But because of Kentucky employment protections for police officers, Kilbourne was able to challenge the proposed firing before a KSP trial board. That board ultimately imposed a six-month suspension without pay rather than immediate termination.
That result alone might have raised eyebrows. Bryan clearly seems skeptical that the internal discipline matched the seriousness of what the bodycam showed.
Then the criminal side moved forward.
KSP launched a criminal investigation on August 4, 2023. The case was submitted to prosecutors in September, and Kilbourne was charged with second-degree assault and third-degree terroristic threatening. He was arrested on September 19, 2023.
Bryan notes that while the criminal case was pending, Kilbourne stayed employed by KSP, though he was removed from road duties and assigned to technical services because a felony indictment kept him from serving as a sworn road trooper.
Eventually, Kilbourne pleaded guilty.
Bryan says that in January 2026, he pleaded guilty to the charges and was later sentenced to five years in prison. He also lost the ability to work in law enforcement again. Bryan says Kilbourne is now incarcerated in the Laurel County Detention Center, with parole eligibility beginning in February 2027.
That is a severe consequence, especially in a field where officers often avoid criminal punishment altogether. Whether that means the system worked, however, is where Bryan gets more cautious.
The Part Of The Story Bryan Thinks Still Does Not Add Up
Bryan does not seem interested in portraying the case as a simple morality play where everyone except Kilbourne did the right thing.
He points to Trooper Jake Noel, another officer who was present during the foot pursuit and, according to Kidd’s attorney Michael Smith, stood by during the beating without stepping in. Smith also argued that the released footage was selectively edited and did not tell the whole story.
Bryan says that if Noel really stood there and watched without intervening, that raises a separate constitutional issue. Officers have a duty to intervene when another officer is using unlawful force. In Bryan’s view, that should not be optional.
Yet Noel, according to the account Bryan cites, was not disciplined.
That gap seems to be what keeps Bryan from celebrating the outcome too much. He openly wonders whether Kentucky State Police acted out of principle or simply because this was one of those rare cases where the video was too damaging to bury.
He also floats another possibility that experienced civil rights lawyers know well: once an officer is criminally convicted, insurance exclusions for criminal acts can complicate or limit recovery in the civil case, making it easier for the agency to distance itself and harder for the victim to collect meaningful damages. Bryan does not say that is definitely what happened here, but he clearly suspects liability concerns were part of the decision-making.
That suspicion feels fair. Institutions rarely become transparent out of nowhere, especially in policing cases.
A Rare Case, But Not A Clean One
Bryan’s overall conclusion is straightforward. What Kilbourne did was illegal, visible on camera, and serious enough to warrant prison.
On that point, the video appears to have left very little room for argument.
But Bryan also makes clear this is not a perfect example of accountability. Kidd, the suspect who was beaten, also pleaded guilty and received a three-year sentence. His federal lawsuit against Kilbourne is still pending. And bigger questions remain about what the agency knew, why one trooper was singled out while another was not, and whether Kentucky State Police acted out of ethics or self-protection.
The footage may have ended one trooper’s career, but it did not exactly restore confidence in the whole system.
If anything, Bryan seems to argue the opposite. This case stands out precisely because it is rare to see bodycam this clear, prosecution this direct, and prison time this real.
That is why the story matters.
Not because it proves the system usually works, but because it shows what accountability looks like when the evidence becomes too obvious to ignore.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
