[Westside]

Donna Haliburton had a story to tell, but no one would listen — until Monday. At 9 p.m. police received a call that a woman was atop downtown Frankfort’s “Singing Bridge,” Capt. Lynn Aubrey told The State Journal. Haliburton, 56, wasn’t coming down until some listened, preferably Lexington’s NBC affiliate WLEX 18.

For four hours police negotiated with Haliburton, who was seated snugly in a corner formed by a joint in the bridge’s north side. With a backpack full of supplies, she was in it for the long haul. Unless WLEX 18 came, Haliburton wasn’t budging.

A signed affidavit that Haliburton, a Lexington resident and former state government employee, provided to The State Journal last week alleges Attorney General Andy Beshear conspired with police and the county attorney in Somerset to, among other things, force her into a hospital to “declare me insane and bugged the car I drove.”

Haliburton’s sister Natalie Thurman, a Frankfort resident, told The State Journal that the trouble began last year when police in Somerset were called in response to an “altercation” between Haliburton and her boyfriend.

“They sent out a cop and the cop did something wrong to her,” said Thurman. “Ever since then she has felt like they are tapping her telephone.”

At around 11:30 p.m., police called WLEX 18.

“I’ve done everything that you’ve asked me to do,” about a dozen bystanders at the north end of the bridge and at the boat basin below could hear Frankfort Police negotiators tell Haliburton.

For that, police wanted something in return — for Haliburton to come down and talk to WLEX 18 on terra firma. The lights would soon be going out on the Singing Bridge, they explained. Police neglected to mention to Haliburton that they had enlisted the Frankfort Plant Board’s help in arranging that power outage, along with the deployment of a plant board bucket truck.

At 12:45 a.m., FPB cut power to the bridge, leaving just three small spotlights trained on Haliburton. Then Sgt. Todd Smither and Maj. Chuck Adams of the Frankfort Police Department climbed inside a bucket and inched skyward, eventually bringing Haliburton back down to safety.

“I’ve reached out everywhere,” said Haliburton before her promised interview in front of a WLEX 18 camera.


“They reached back,” Haliburton’s brother John Thurman said in response.


“She really needs some psychiatric help,” Thurman told The State Journal. “It’s sad. I just hope she gets the help she needs.”

Haliburton was arrested shortly afterward at around 1:30 a.m.

As she protested, Thurman could be heard reassuring his sister, “I’ll be there right behind you.”


http://www.state-journal.com/2017/09/19/...-standoff/