WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | ALS Groups Now Shun Todd Kelly

ALS Groups Now Shun Todd Kelly

By Eric Flack

(LOUISVILLE) -- We were the first to tell you about allegations a Louisville radio personality could be faking a degenerative disease. Now WAVE 3 Investigator Eric Flack has learned Kentucky State Police are investigating possible theft charges against Todd Kelly.

Kelly claims to suffer from ALS, also known as "Lou Gerhig's Disease." It's a claim he has yet to prove, despite using the disease to raise thousands of dollars for a foundation he created.

Investigator Eric Flack tracked Kelly down at his home Monday, and confronted him on camera for the first time.

Not only is he at the center of a state police investigation, ALS groups that once worked side by side with Kelly now want nothing to do with him. And he didn't want anything to do with our cameras as we caught him leaving his Louisville home Monday afternoon.

Walking without a limp, talking without a slur, he didn't look bad for a guy supposedly suffering from ALS.

But when we asked him to do an interview, Kelly said: "I can't. I've been advised not to talk to anybody from the media right now. That's just what my lawyers have told me."

Kelly has a lot to answer for. A former radio personality at WDJX, he told his listeners he had been diagnosed with ALS back in 2001.

But four-and-a-half years later, Kelly shows none of the symptoms. And that just doesn't make sense to Dr. Greg Pittman, the director of the Muscular Dystrophy clinic in Louisville.

"That's part of the way you make the diagnosis is that at the time you're willing to say someone has ALS, they've got a substantial problem," Pittman said.

The only problem Kelly seems to have is producing something to back up his story.

When we confronted Kelly outside his home, we asked him to go back inside and produce anything that proved he had ALS.

"Everything is going through my lawyer," Kelly replied as he walked away. "That's all I can do."

He certainly didn't have any trouble finding support in the community. In published reports, Kelly said his foundation, which was supposed to be supporting ALS victims, had raised $150,000. And that was more than a year ago.

There have been more fundraisers for him since then.

Now we've discovered Kelly never filed tax forms required by charitable groups raising money. That is a Class D felony and carries up to a 5-year prison term.

Meanwhile, a Kentucky State Police investigator says he's looking into theft charges for all the donations Kelly has yet to account for.

The investigator told us Kelly bought an SUV a month ago, without a loan -- the same SUV he was driving when he declined our request for an interview.

We called Kelly and left a message asking for his lawyer's name, but he didn't call us back. WAVE 3 has made Kelly an offer to pay for medical tests that could prove he has ALS. But he has not responded to that either.

Last week, Kelly told us the money he raised went to pay for other fundraisers, as well as buy beds and wheelchairs for ALS victims. But once again, Kelly has not been able to produce a list of the people he has donated to.

The Kentucky Attorney General's office says it cannot officially launch an investigation until it gets complaints from people who donated to the Todd Kelly Foundation.

If you would like to file a complaint, call 1-888-432-9257.

Online Reporter: Eric Flack

Online Producer: Michael Dever