By NICK WERNER
Muncie Star Press
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MUNCIE, Ind. -- A scene in Wednesday’s episode of the CBS reality show Armed & Famous angered survivors of a Muncie policeman who was slain in the line of duty 16 years ago.
Officer Gregg Winters, 32, was shot five times in the back of the head and neck Dec. 28, 1990, by a handcuffed prisoner he was transporting to the Delaware County jail in a patrol car.
During Wednesday’s episode, training officer Kyle Temple took his celebrity partner, Trish Stratus, to a downtown memorial to the fallen officer to emphasize to her the importance of properly patting down suspects for weapons.
“Screwed up and missed a handgun,” Temple, 31, said, apparently referring to Winters. “Loved him to death. Screwed up and missed a handgun.”
Earlier in the program, Stratus, then in her third day as a patrol officer, had conducted an improper pat-down on a female arrestee.
The problem with Temple’s lecture, according to widow Molly Winters, was that Gregg Winters was not the officer that patted down prisoner Michael Lambert, then 20, and missed a .25-caliber pistol.
The pat-down was the responsibility of another officer, according to testimony in Lambert’s murder trial, Molly Winters said.
About 24 hours after the show aired, Molly Winters and Temple spoke by phone and Temple apologized, Molly Winters said.
“I’m sure (Temple) did have good intentions,” Molly Winters said. “But it sure did come out wrong.”
Molly Winters, who now lives in rural Greenfield, said she was also angry at the police department and representatives of Armed & Famous for not calling her in advance to let her know that her family’s tragedy would be mentioned in the show.
Gregg Winters’s brother, Terry, a deputy chief and second-in-command at the Muncie Police Department, said he did not know about the scene in advance either.
“It’s a personal thing and it’s a tragedy that affected our family,” Terry Winters said. “I feel like they should have left that part out of there.”
Terry Winters said he did not have any hard feelings toward Temple, who had also apologized to the deputy chief.
“I think he got caught up in the moment and didn’t realize the impact of what he said,” Winters said.
Temple told The Star Press he drove Stratus to the memorial because he didn’t believe the former pro wrestler understood how dangerous Muncie could be, despite the city’s comparatively small size.
He blamed himself for not warning the Winters family about the reference.
During the episode, Temple wiped tears from his eyes while talking about how he presented a flag to Molly Winters during a memorial service several years after Gregg Winters’s death.
Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle said he hated that the episode caused any upset for Gregg Winters’s survivors.
“I think I understand what Kyle (Temple) was trying to do,” Winkle said. “It came across like he was blaming Gregg. But that wasn’t his intention.”
Armed & Famous producer Tom Forman did not immediately return a phone call Thursday night.
Following his conviction on murder charges, Michael Lambert was sentenced to death by Delaware Circuit Court 3 Judge Robert Barnet Jr. in January 1992, and the Muncie man has been on death row in the Indiana State prison since that time.
An execution scheduled for June 21, 2005, was indefinitely stayed by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Lambert had initially been arrested on a charge of public intoxication the night of the shooting when officers found him lying under a car in the 1000 block of East 24th Street.
As the patrol car approached a temporary county jail then located along Riggin Road, Lambert produced the gun, believed to have been hidden in his clothing, and shot Winters.
Delaware County sheriff’s deputies found the police car in a ditch minutes later with Winters unresponsive and Lambert, still handcuffed and conscious in the back seat.
Winters died 11 days later.
Molly Winters coped with her loss by becoming an advocate for survivors of police officers killed in the line of duty, speaking publicly and in the press on many occasions.
She has served as a national trustee and president of COPS -- Concerns of Police Survivors, a grief-survival organization.
In 1998 she started the Indiana chapter of COPS.
Gregg and Molly Winters’s two sons were ages three years and 10 months, respectively, when their father died. They are now in college and high school.
Molly Winters said she contacted an attorney Thursday but would not describe what type of legal action, if any, she intended to pursue.
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