A Kentucky cop with a long history of lawsuits against him has just been slapped with another two lawsuits for abusing his power – marking the sixth and seventh lawsuit against him within the past four years.
But Covington police officer Douglas Ullrich – who has boasted in the past of violating every departmental policy – appears to be well-protected by his department because he continues to abuse his power without regard for any consequences.
However, local attorney Jamir Davis, a Black man who has filed four of the seven lawsuits against Ullrich, has made it his mission to hold the cop accountable for his abusive and unconstitutional behavior towards citizens.
But Davis said his aggressive litigation against the problem cop has led to Covington police officers retaliating against him and his staff, prompting him to file his own lawsuit earlier this month, where he is representing himself.
The retaliation includes pulling the attorney over on several occasions “without legal basis” and driving by his law office in police cars and making threatening gestures towards his staff.
“These retaliatory actions by law enforcement personnel, combined with the city’s refusal to investigate or intervene, have created a hostile and dangerous environment for plaintiff and his employees, further exacerbating the reputational and emotional harm caused by defendants’ prior misconduct,” states the claim filed in state court on Aug. 12 and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
Davis followed that lawsuit by filing his latest two lawsuits against Ullrich on Aug. 20 on behalf of citizens who were abused by the cop, including a woman who was reportedly suicidal but ended up getting her arm broken by Ullrich and another woman who was pregnant when she was unlawfully searched after being pulled over for “illegal tints.”
“This is not just about one officer losing control,” Davis said in a press release.
“This is about a pattern of harassment and violence against vulnerable citizens—breaking one woman’s arm, humiliating another who was pregnant—and the City of Covington has chosen to look the other way every time. That silence empowers Ullrich to keep doing it.”
Breaking a Woman’s Arm
The first of the two recent lawsuits involves a woman named Kathleen Keitz, who was sitting in a car on the phone in front of a store on Oct. 27, 2024, when Ullrich tapped on her window, telling her they had received a call that she was suicidal.
Keitz informed Ullrich she was not suicidal, but he ordered her out of the car to search her for weapons. He then took her phone while he and another cop grabbed her wrists.
Keitz, who informed the cops she had just learned her boyfriend had cheated on her, was obviously distraught at being manhandled by the cops, even though she had committed no crime.
“I’m just trying to take control of you because you’re acting crazy,” Ullrich said in his signature condescending tone
The lawsuit states that earlier that day, a pair of Covington cops entered her home without a warrant or probable cause to search for a man who lived next door, so she was still upset about that, accusing them of being liars as they frisked her for weapons.
And the cops did not like that, so they decided to arrest her, with Ullrich yanking her left arm behind her back so hard that an arm bone fractured.
“Oh my god, my arm!” she cried out in pain.
According to the lawsuit:
Throughout both encounters, Kathleen was subjected to unjustified aggression, physical intrusion, and egregious abuse of police authority.
These incidents, documented on body-worn camera footage and other discoverable materials, provide clear evidence that Plaintiffs’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated as a result of Officer Ullrich’s actions and the policies, practices, and failures of oversight within the Covington Police Department.
The facts of this case are not isolated. They exemplify a broader pattern of the Covington Police Department’s failure to hold officers accountable, properly train, supervise, or discipline its personnel in accordance with constitutional requirements.
“These attacks were not justified, not lawful, and not isolated,” Davis said in his press release.
“Officer Ullrich has a long history of excessive force and unconstitutional conduct. Yet instead of discipline, the City has allowed him to continue wearing a badge and even promoted him to train other officers.”
Watch the video below.
Illegal Search of Car
The second lawsuit stems from an incident that took place on March 14, 2025, after Ullrich pulled over a couple for “illegal tints” – but he did not tell them the reason for the stop until after he ordered them out of the car and frisked them.
However, he never used a tint meter to measure the darkness of the tints, which is required by law to make that infraction valid.
Frankie Torres, who was pregnant, and her partner, Cecil Jones, had just left a funeral for Jones’ grandmother when they were pulled over.
Jones specifically said he did not consent to having his car searched, but Ullrich claimed to have smelled marijuana.
“Is there any marijuana still in your car?” asking them a leading question.
“No,” replied Jones.
“How long ago were you guys smoking?” Ullrich asked.
Jones said he did not smoke weed, and Ullrich brought up a traffic stop from a year earlier where police found weed in a car he was in, but Jones told him that it was not his car.
But Ullrich proceeded to search the car anyway, finding no marijuana.
“Ullrich has a long history of wrongfully accusing citizens of being intoxicated or smelling like marijuana as a means of initiating unconstitutional searches,” the claim states.
The lawsuit lists the defendants as Ullrich, along with Covington Police Colonel Brian Valenti, who was the department’s police chief before announcing his retirement in July.
“The city and Valenti have allowed Ullrich and other officers to act with impunity and have failed to properly train or supervise their officers in accordance with established policies,” the claim states.
The lawsuit accuses Ullrich, Valenti and the city of Covington of assault and battery for the unlawful search as well as negligence, inflicting emotional distress and violating the couple’s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
“The facts of this case are not isolated,” the claim states.
“They show a larger problem of not holding officers accountable or making sure they follow the law within the Covington Police Department, which has repeatedly failed to train, supervise, or discipline its officers in a manner consistent with constitutional mandates.”
Watch the video below.
‘I Violate Every Policy’
Earlier this year, Atlanta Black Star reported on another lawsuit filed by Davis against Ullrich on behalf of a Black man named Damien Connor, who was pulled out of his car during a traffic stop for using his phone while driving after the cop claimed to have smelled weed.
But that was a lie because Connor works for the railroad, where he is drug tested regularly, so he does not even consume marijuana.
Davis had already become familiar with Ullrich’s history of abuse, providing Atlanta Black Star with the cop’s personnel file, which contains a page where, in 2014, Ullrich bragged in a text chat with other cops that, “I violate every policy.”
“I have his personnel file and man, it is egregious, it is bad,” Davis said at the time.
“The guy has over 209 pages worth of personnel records. He’s wrecked probably 15 vehicles and been found at fault for over nine wrecks,” the attorney continued.
“He’s improperly handled evidence against the orders of his supervisor.”
“And his thing now is to immediately come up to a vehicle and say he smells weed, just so that he can search it and a lot of times he’s not finding anything,” Davis added.
Rather than terminate Ullrich, officers from the Covington Police Department have retaliated against Davis and his staff in the hopes of intimidating him from further exposing their unlawful tactics, the lawyer is claiming.
“One of the most egregious incidents occurred on or about December 3, 2024, when a white Audi with police federation decals drove past J. Davis Law Firm, PLLC,” states the lawsuit filed by Davis on his own behalf.
“The driver rolled down his window and made a hand gesture simulating a firearm being aimed and discharged at Jamir and his staff. This incident was witnessed by plaintiff’s intern.”
Just last week, a man named Justin Pendleton posted on Facebook that he was searching for an attorney after his rights were violated by Ullrich.
“I need a brave lawyer to help me get justice for what a Covington KY City Police Officer did to me,” Pendleton wrote in a Facebook group titled Police Accountability.
“His name is Douglas Ullrich. He lied on my citation to try to get me convicted for Loitering for Prostitution Purposes. The charge was dismissed but he arrested me, impounded my car, and seized my cellphone and money from my wallet. Everything was returned to me after a lot of time and trouble.”
