Ex-LMPD officers plead not guilty to sex abuse charges

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Two former Louisville Metro Police Department officers have pleaded not guilty to sex abuse charges.

Media outlets report 30-year-old Brandon Wood and 32-year-old Kenneth Betts entered their pleas Monday at an arraignment.

Wood is charged with seven counts of sexual abuse, while Betts faces two counts of sodomy.

The former officers are accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the department’s Youth Explorers program, which is for teens interested in law enforcement.

The victim, now 22, filed a civil lawsuit in March claiming he was assaulted by Wood and Betts from the time he was 17 to 19 years old.

Betts resigned from the force in 2014 following an investigation into “improper contact” between him and a teenage girl in the program. Wood was fired from the department last week.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.