The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Jury selection in the murder trial of a former Louisville police officer was interrupted while an appeals court decides if the public and media can enter the courtroom during the process.
Former narcotics detective McKenzie Mattingly was charged in the shooting death of 19-year-old Michael Newby.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman barred the public and the media from the courtroom during the jury selection process. She said the courtroom would be too crowded and denied a motion by The Courier-Journal newspaper to allow reporters to enter the courtroom. She said she was also concerned about fire safety, since the courtroom has a capacity of 107 people. She allowed reporters to view the proceedings on a closed-circuit monitor.
Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge William L. Knopf was expected to rule on the appeal Tuesday morning, and further jury selection was put on hold pending his ruling.
Before jury selection began on Monday, civil rights activists gathered in prayer outside the courthouse. They have paid close attention to the case since Mattingly, who is white, shot Newby, who was black, in a Jan. 3 undercover drug buy that went bad.
“All of us have been through a lot of pain. This is the first time they held a police officer accountable,” said the Rev. Louis Coleman, who led a group of about 30 people, including Newby’s mother and stepfather, in prayer outside court.
“We really need this. It helps our hearts, it helps our minds,” said Jerry Bouggess, Newby’s stepfather.
Mattingly’s court case has been covered extensively in the Louisville media, prompting Jefferson County Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman to gather a larger-than-normal pool of potential jurors. About 150 potential jurors gathered in the courtroom just before noon Monday to begin a long, and sometimes tedious, selection process.
Jurors are scheduled to be questioned en masse before each meets privately with attorneys and the judge for individual questioning. Mattingly’s attorneys have argued he won’t get a fair trial in the Louisville area because of the media attention. Burkman denied a motion in May to move the trial.
“This will be an exercise in patience and down time,” Burkman told the potential jurors before she began the selection process, which is expected to last nearly a week.
The group was asked general questions Monday. They were asked if they knew Mattingly or Newby, or if they knew any attorneys involved in the case.
One potential juror, a pregnant woman, had to be excused because she said she believed she was having contractions.
Newby’s death came just over a year after the December 2002 fatal shooting of 50-year-old James Taylor. Police shot Taylor 11 times in an apartment after he was handcuffed. Two white officers at the scene said Taylor, who was black, lunged at them with a box-cutter knife.
Activists already protesting Taylor’s death were incensed over the Newby shooting.
Newby was shot three times in the back. According to court records, Newby was carrying a small amount of crack-cocaine, some marijuana, a .45-caliber handgun and a large amount of money the night of the shooting.
Mattingly was indicted for murder and wanton endangerment in March and fired a month later.