Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway Tips Off His Brother To Narcotics Investigation

By R. G. Dunlop • rdunlop@courier-journal.com • October 23, 2010

A Jefferson County prosecutor was tipped off by Louisville narcotics detectives twice in the past two years that he was under investigation for possible drug use or trafficking, according to police records obtained by The Courier-Journal.

When investigators learned of the leaks and interrogated the two detectives and the prosecutor last March, all three initially gave false or misleading statements about what happened, those records show. The statements of Matthew C. Conway, the prosecutor, were made under oath.

Details of the compromised investigations are contained in nearly 700 pages of documents obtained from Louisville Metro Police under the state open-records law.

Conway, the brother of Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, had recently resigned from the Jefferson County attorney’s office to enter private practice when he learned of the first investigation in early 2008.

At the time of the second leak, in January of this year, Conway was an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, a position he still holds.

Ronald Russ and Scott Wilson, the two detectives accused of the leaks to Matthew Conway, have been placed in administrative jobs pending the outcome of an internal police inquiry into possible policy violations. Wilson told Conway of the first investigation, and Russ told him of the second one. The two investigations were prompted by separate allegations.

After a criminal investigation by police, the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office decided in August that no charges would be filed against Conway, Russ, Wilson or a third narcotics detective, Chauncey Carthan, who was not involved in the leaks but was overheard discussing the second investigation in a restaurant last March.

Carthan’s conversation was reported to Jack Conway, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, by a person supporting him. The brothers subsequently conferred with an attorney about the investigation of Matthew Conway, according to the investigative file.

The lawyer, Bart Adams of Louisville, then met with Police Chief Robert White to discuss Carthan’s conduct, according to the records

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