The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 2

THE COURIER-JOURNAL FROM PAGE ONE SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1998 A3 It won't be long before you're wishing you lived at The Forum at Brookside. False-arrest award sends expensive message to city licized in Louisville. A student at the University of Louisville at the time, he was leaving Wick's Pizza Parlor and Pub at 971 Baxter Ave. and heading to his car when two men, one with a sawed-off shotgun, confronted him. He was shot in the face and left lying in the parking lot.

He survived, mfwiim'K' Dec- 23 mWZi 2pm mmmMmm but his lower jaw, cheekbone and eye-socket platform were blown away, and he had to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery. The crime outraged the neighborhood, where residents and bars held fundraisers to pay for Wallace's care. IN DEPOSITIONS given last year, Kearney and Handy both insisted that they still thought Wilson had committed the crime. Handy said he did not think the information Gray shared was publicly known, although that was contradict mmt to 1 tarn i.wja Continued from Page One police tracked down Brown three days later to interview him further, it turned out he had given a phony name he was really named James Gray. When they wired him to surreptitiously record Wilson's friends to get more information on the crime, it was obvious to one of the sergeants supervising the investigation that the friends knew nothing about it and neither did Gray.

IT TURNED OUT that most of Gray's information came from what already had been reported on television or was widely known on the street according to court records in the trial that ended Wednesday when a jury found that Wilson was falsely arrested. "He was treated pretty shabbily, to say the least, and it was the police's fault," said juror Kenneth Stammer-man. He said the jury wanted to send a message to the city through its verdict which included $750,000 in punitive damages that the police need to be trained better and that they need to do a better job of following their own policies and procedures for making arrests. Thomas Lukins, the assistant city attorney who defended the department, said the case will be appealed. "The verdict in our minds was clearly excessive," he said.

Officer Aaron Graham, a police spokesman, said no one in the department would comment because the case is still in litigation. Graham testified at the trial about his statements to the media concerning Wilson's arrest. But Lukins said in an interview that the two detectives Mark Handy and Gary Kearney who initially interviewed Gray believed there was probable cause to arrest Wilson based on what Gray told them. Lukins said the detectives didn't think Gray would have memorized details of the crime from television reports just in case he might be arrested weeks later. "We believe the officers acted in Dangerous roads.

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He also said in the deposition that he did not seek to corroborate Gray's statements or make sure he was who he said he was. Both said they weren't bothered by the fact that witnesses said Wallace's assailants were black because the identifications were vague and eyewitnesses are often mistaken about the race of suspects. Police also knew that one of Gray's tips was right on the money that Aaron Wilson had fled to Florida by bus. (He was later caught, convicted of wanton murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison.) However, Handy's supervisor, Sgt. James Woosley, said suspicions about Gray's story arose three days after Wilson's arrest, when police learned Gray had given the phony name.

To check his story, police sent him to record Wilson's friends. But the conversations showed it was obvious that Gray knew nothing firsthand about the crime, Woosley said. POLICE HAD also futilely searched an apartment for the shotgun but couldn't find it where Gray said it would be. "Detective Handy has interviewed many people and is a very good in BY MARY ANN LYONS. THE COURIER-JOURNAL Joshua Wilson was jailed in connection with a 1995 assault and robbery based on the word of an informant, then released.

He sued for false arrest, and jurors awarded him $950,000. charged. Stammerman said jurors concluded that there was "a rush to judgment." Wilson's lawyer, Michael R. McMa-hon, said, "You don't put a person in jail on the say-so of someone without credibility who's trading information to avoid going to jail." It came out at trial that Gray has been receiving disability payments since 1991 for a mood disorder and that his mother handles his money for him. JUDGE JAMES SHAKE told the jury that a police officer has probable cause to make an arrest if the officer, acting in good faith, believes a crime has been committed and the person who is being arrested committed the crime.

Testifying as an expert witness for Wilson, retired state Court of Appeals Judge Michael McDonald said he didn't think the detectives had probable cause to arrest Wilson. Lukins, however, said he is going to file a motion with Shake challenging the admissibility of McDonald's testimony. Wilson, 21, is working as a cook at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. He testified that because of his arrest, the Marine Corps rejected him, he was denied an apartment and he had to undergo a doctor's counseling for depression. He said that for months after he was arrested and jailed for four days, he couldn't sleep and was afraid to go anywhere without his parents.

Wallace's shooting was highly pub CJ: Please provide me with information about CH Independent Living Assisted Services Health Care Services Name Address AT BROOKSIDE A MAKKIU1 I SLMUK UUV, LOMMl.il 200 Brookside Drive Louisville, Ky 40243 (502) 244-6318 Zip good faith and made a good-faith effort to solve a serious crime," Lukins said. Cily, Slate Phone One Location. Many Solutions. terviewer, and I believe that Gray fooled him," Woosley said in a deposition. Wilson was released from jail based on Woosley's doubts about Gray's allegation.

Gray then changed his story: He said Woosley had tied him up with tape, stepped on him and choked him to get him to implicate Wilson. Woosley was later cleared by the department's internal-affairs unit. GRAY KNEW Wilson and his brother from hanging out in the Crums Lane neighborhood. Stammerman, however, said that jurors didn't find Gray credible and believed that the detectives were wrong to make an arrest based on his word alone. No other evidence was ever found to link Wilson to the crime, and nobody else has been 10 iP TAD OS) AW 0 AM 9 piM DAY SALE Vj UP SAVINGS THROUGHOUT THE STORE FDR) iQ ami Miuwfcu limns im spami stgmt A Bashford Manor, Shively, Mall St.

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