More than two years after a riot broke out at a Kentucky juvenile detention center, during which several employees were assaulted and a teen girl was raped, a Louisville teen accused of participating in the crimes is set to stand trial.
A jury trial for Demaurion Moore, 19, starts Wednesday in Columbia, Kentucky, where he will argue his innocence against seven charges, including rape and sodomy, rioting, promoting a sexual performance by a minor and assault. Moore is currently being held on bond at the Louisville Metro Detention Center as he awaits trials in other cases, including a fatal shooting at a school bus stop in 2021.
Moore’s attorney, Amanda Mullins Bear, denied his involvement in the riot and assaults.
“While the deplorable conditions of confinement at the Adair Youth Development Center are central to this case, we are also very focused on disproving the rape allegations,” Bear told a Courier Journal reporter by text. “We believe the evidence will speak for itself.”
This week’s trial will be centered around a riot at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in November 2022 that required state troopers and other law enforcement to help regain control of the facility.
More: How one Louisville teen is connected to multiple high-profile crimes
In the immediate aftermath, Gov. Andy Beshear ordered Department of Juvenile Justice leaders to begin separating male and female juveniles into different centers and separating males by the severity of their crimes. He also raised corrections officers’ salaries in an attempt to attract and retain employees, established a new position focused on security at the state’s youth detention centers and provided officers with pepper spray.
The riot also prompted state investigations, as well as an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
A report produced by the state’s Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee found Kentucky’s system for tracking gang affiliations was obsolete, and officers were not properly documenting important information necessary to keep the detention centers safe.
“The current system in place has not evolved to fit the needs of today’s at-risk youth and adequately respond to increased youth violence and involvement in gangs,” the report stated.
Demaurion Moore listens to judge Tracy E. Davis during a pretrial conference of Moore and his codefendant Mekhi Cable, who are both named in the 2021 killing of Tyree Smith at a JCPS bus stop. Dec. 19, 2024
What happened at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center?
In November 2022, an overnight emergency caused corrections officers to move Moore and 12 other teens from a Louisville juvenile detention center two hours away to the Adair center.
There, Moore was placed in the same pod with two fellow gang members, a failure that reportedly allowed them to communicate and form a plot to incite a riot days later.
According to court documents and a state report, the riot began when teens in Moore’s pod began breaking sprinkler heads, flooding the area.
More pods were flooded when a staff member inadvertently turned the sprinkler system on, rather than off. After several hours of sitting in the water, a staff member opened Moore’s pod to give one of the boys toilet paper for drying, and the boy attacked the man — fracturing his skull and eye — before taking his keys to open the cell doors of other teens. It is unclear which of the teens in the pod did this.
Ultimately, about 30 teens were able to leave their pods, leading to the rape of one girl as well as attacks on other teens and center employees.
Multiple other teens were charged with participating in the riot and assaults. Three — Moore and two other Louisville teens — were also charged with rape. Those teens, aged 14 and 17 at the time, were both charged as adults and have pleaded guilty.
Who is Demaurion Moore?
Moore, who was 17 at the time of the riot, is the only defendant of the three charged with rape who didn’t accept a plea bargain. Before he ended up in Adair, Moore had been housed at the Jefferson County facility for a year after being implicated in two Louisville murders, as well as an attempted murder.
Those cases involve the nonfatal shooting of Rayjon Baskin in March 2021, the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Tyree Smith at a school bus stop six months later and the fatal shooting of Cortez Duncan, 15, on Thanksgiving morning the same year.
Timeline: Demaurion Moore charged in Tyree Smith murder, Adair riot
During a pretrial conference, Moore’s mom stressed his innocence in the Louisville cases before ultimately declining to speak to a Courier Journal reporter until those cases are resolved.
His Louisville lawyer also declined to speak, and The Courier Journal could not locate any other relatives or advocates to speak on his behalf.
Krista Johnson covers education and children. Have story ideas or questions? Contact her at [email protected] and subscribe to her newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville teen to stand trial for role in KY detention center riot
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