Pubdate: Mon, 20 Sep 2004
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
05.html
Copyright: 2004 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Authors: Laura Bauer, and Jason Riley

EX-DETECTIVE'S MURDER TRIAL NEARS IN SLAYING OF LOUISVILLE TEENAGER

Angela Bouggess has waited nine months to fit together the bits and pieces 
of information surrounding her son's shooting death last January by a 
Louisville Metro Police officer.

She wants to know where her son, 19-year-old Michael Newby, got the gun 
police said they found tucked in his waistband. She wants to know where he 
got the crack cocaine police said he had in his pocket.

But most of all, she wants to see justice done.

"I need to see the whole picture," she said recently, sitting in the dining 
room of her western Louisville home.

She hopes her questions will be answered in the next few weeks, when former 
Detective McKenzie Mattingly stands trial on murder and wanton endangerment 
charges in the Jan. 3 shooting of Newby. If convicted, Mattingly could face 
life in prison.

In a city that has struggled with fatal shootings by police, the trial's 
outcome could hold serious consequences for more than just Mattingly.

Police supporters say a conviction could have a chilling effect on 
officers, putting police and the public in danger.

"They are scared to death that they'll be going to trial for murder when 
they have to do their job and use lethal force," said Bridget Abell, 
founder and president of Citizens for the Fair Treatment of Police, which 
formed after the Newby shooting.

Civil-rights activists say a police-shooting conviction is long overdue. 
"The country is watching this one," said the Rev. Louis Coleman of the 
Justice Resource Center. "They're watching to see if this man will be 
convicted."

Police say the shooting resulted from an undercover drug deal that went awry.

Mattingly was part of a group of suburban police in western Louisville 
following up on a drug tip. Mattingly was engaging in an undercover drug 
buy when, he said, several males, including Newby, robbed him.

Police Chief Robert White said Mattingly and Newby were struggling over the 
detective's service handgun when the weapon discharged but didn't strike 
anyone. Newby ran, and Mattingly fired his gun four times, striking Newby 
three times in the back. Newby was taken to University Hospital and 
pronounced dead.

Police at the scene said drugs were found on Newby's body and a .45-caliber 
gun was in his waistband. Mattingly eventually was fired from the force 
because White said Newby's actions hadn't threatened the detective's life 
or anyone else's.

Publicity and security

Legal experts expect the Mattingly trial to generate as much interest as 
any since the 1991 acquittal of Mel Ignatow, who later admitted he tortured 
and murdered Brenda Sue Schaefer in Jefferson County.

Acknowledging the intense publicity, Jefferson Circuit Judge Judith 
McDonald-Burkman has ordered a jury pool of 150 people, more than three 
times the normal number called up for a trial. She rejected a defense 
motion for a change of venue.

Prosecutors and the defense say it could take three to five days to pick 
the jury. Both sides say the trial should take about two weeks.

With Mattingly supporters and Newby's family expected to attend the 
proceedings, the sheriff's department has increased its security.

At least four deputies will stand watch during the trial, sheriff's 
spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Yates said. Typically, only one deputy is stationed 
in a courtroom.

"You have a lot of emotion on both sides of the aisle way," Yates said.

Lawyers predict that prosecutors might have difficulty getting a jury to 
convict a police officer, especially if the defense can prove Newby was 
reaching for his gun or turning toward Mattingly in a threatening manner.

Former Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alex Dathorne, who prosecuted 
ex-corrections officer Timothy Barnes unsuccessfully in 2002 in a Jefferson 
County jail inmate's death, said "it's a weird dynamic" putting an officer 
on trial. Prosecutors will need to present the Mattingly jury with a 
compelling motive for the officer's actions, he said.

"You better give them a reason why he did it," Dathorne said. "Was it a 
mistake? Did he mess up? Did he get up that morning and say, `I'm going to 
shoot a black man, or a drug dealer.' They are going to want to know why he 
did it."

Defense attorney Steve Schroering said Mattingly would testify.

Parents' viewpoint

Angela Bouggess and her husband, Jerry Bouggess, said once testimony 
begins, they will be in the courtroom every day.

Angela Bouggess wants to know more about the night her son was killed.

"They've said quite a few things, there's been bits and pieces, but not the 
whole picture," she said.

She knows that the defense will try to portray her son as a drug dealer 
with a gun. But to the Bouggesses, Newby was a young man struggling with 
the shooting death of his father but who was beginning to get back on the 
path that would lead him to college and a profession working with animals.

Jerry Bouggess said one of the last times he saw his stepson alive, the two 
sat on the edge of his bed in his upstairs bedroom and talked about the future.

"He said, `Jerry, I'm going to trip everybody out. I'm going to go to 
college and get my degree. I'm going get my life straightened out,'" Jerry 
Bouggess recalled.

Added Angela Bouggess: "He was a kid who got in trouble, but a kid who 
wanted to do the right thing."

A fair shake

Lukas Dwelly, Mattingly's friend and co-founder of the SaveMcKenzie.com 
organization, believes the former detective is being used as a "sacrificial 
lamb."

He said people haven't looked at the facts of the case and made a decision 
based solely on that night. Instead, they are dragging in the politics 
surrounding past shootings by police, he said.

"This guy (Mattingly) sacrificed 11 years for the benefit of this 
community," Dwelly said. "And a lot of people in the community, who are 
stewards in this community, have turned their backs on him. ... He'll get a 
fair shot when the court opens up, but he hasn't had a fair shot up until then."
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