Mayor: Acting police chief verbally reprimanded over role in ‘Trailergate’
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016, 8 p.m. — Following his appearance on WBRT’s “Bradford & Brooks” radio show Wednesday morning, Mayor John Royalty said that in the wake of the “Trailergate” incident, he has issued a verbal reprimand to acting police chief Capt. McKenzie Mattingly.
Mayor John Royalty said Wednesday he has verbally reprimanded acting police chief Capt. McKenzie Mattingly over his role in “Trailergate,” and instructed him to craft department policies and procedures for handling found and recovered property.
Royalty said he also has instructed Mattingly to establish policies and procedures for the department regarding found and recovered property.
“He should have known better,” Royalty said of the Mattingly’s use of recovered property last month.
“Trailergate” refers to an incident that happened last month involving Mattingly’s use of a trailer that was believed to have been stolen and later recovered by Bardstown Police. The trailer was recovered in August, and the trailer was unclaimed for more than a month and remained in police department custody.
Mattingly used the trailer on Sept. 19 to assist with Flex Team training, and after that, for his personal use. While Mattingly had the trailer at Lowe’s in Bardstown, the trailer’s actual owner spotted it and called 911 to request an officer.
During the call to Nelson County Dispatch, Mattingly returned to the vehicle he was using to tow the trailer and the 911 call audio recorded their conversation. Mattingly and the trailer’s owner were longtime acquaintenances. The man recovered his trailer at the Bardstown Police Department the following day.
In a written statement to the media, Mattingly said when the police department recovered the trailer, it had not yet been reported by its owner as stolen. The city police department was unaware of the theft report about the stolen trailer taken by a detective with the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office seven days after it was recovered by city police.
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