LONDON, Ky. (LEX 18) — According to the United States Department of Justice, a Kentucky State Police Trooper from London has been indicted for conspiracy and engaging in misleading conduct with the intent to prevent communication to a federal official or commission of a federal offense.
Thirty-two-year-old Michael L. Howell was charged with the indictment by a federal grand jury sitting in London.
The incident Howell is being indicted for took place on August 18, 2020.
The indictment alleges Howell, along with another KSP Trooper, conspired with others to conceal the true nature of the force used by KSP troopers, and the circumstances under which they used that force to detain an arrestee. It also says Howell and others failed to disclose the use of force upon the victim by creating a fictitious story about what happened, which matched “the closest thing to what the video would show,” in order to conceal the true events.
After agreeing on the cover story Howell gave an interview on August 20, 2020, with a KSP supervisor. In that interview, Howell knowingly mislead the supervisor by failing to disclose the victim was repeatedly hit in the face. Howell also omitted that the use of force against the victim was in his own words "pretty bad" and that he hoped the use of force had not been recorded.
The investigation prior to the indictment was conducted by the FBI. Howell will appear in court on July 8 at 1:30 p.m. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge.
The indictment is part of an ongoing investigation.
