Wrongfully convicted man says he can't forgive police

[The Streets Don't Love You Back]

Wrongfully convicted man says he can't forgive police

Edwin Chandler speaks about his settlement with Louisville metro government which has agreed to pay him $8.5 million dollars to settle his federal lawsuit. Chandler spent nine years in prison after the wrongful conviction but was exonerated in 2009 when another man was charged in the killing of Brenda Whitfield in a convenient store. At Chandler's left is his fiancee, Stacey Patterson and at his right is his attorney, Larry D. Simon, explaining the investigation that freed his client. October 05, 2012
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Edwin Chandler speaks about his settlement with Louisville metro government which has agreed to pay him $8.5 million dollars to settle his federal lawsuit. Chandler spent nine years in prison after the wrongful conviction but was exonerated in 2009 when another man was charged in the killing of Brenda Whitfield in a convenient store. October 05, 2012 / David Lutman/Special to the Courier-Journal
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Edwin Chandler settlement

Edwin Chandler said he appreciates Louisville metro government “stepping up” and paying $8.5 million to settle a wrongful-conviction lawsuit, but he can’t bring himself to forgive the retired Louisville police detective he blames for his years in prison.

“There is no way I can possibly even put myself in position to even meet with him — I probably never will,” said Chandler, describing Detective Mark Handy as a “bully.”

But, he also said, “I’m not bitter anymore.”

Chandler spoke Friday publicly for the first time since Louisville officials agreed to settle the suit. Chandler spent nine years in prison after being convicted of fatally shooting Brenda Whitfield at the Watterson City Chevron Food Mart on Newburg Road in September 1993.

Sitting with family members at the office of one of his attorneys, Chandler described the settlement as a “milestone.” He’s been working as a material handler for Key Logistics Solutions — a job he said he intends to keep.

Chandler, 40, said he intends to use the money from the settlement for the education of his three children ranging in age from 9 to 2. He may go back to school himself, perhaps studying something in social services.

Chandler was convicted of manslaughter and robbery in 1995 in Whitfield’s death and served nine years before being paroled. The Kentucky Innocence Project took up his case after he’d been paroled, pushing Louisville Metro Police to have a fingerprint on a beer bottle handled by the killer retested in 2009. With a more advanced automated fingerprinting system, the print was matched to another man, Percy Phillips.

Police did an about-face and announced that they’d convicted the wrong man. The charges against Chandler were dismissed in 2009.

For this — and for the settlement — Chandler credited the legal team working on his criminal and civil cases, which included Larry Simon, Nick Brustin and Debi Cornwall.

Phillips was indicted in Whitfield’s murder, and he now awaits trial.

The settlement comes from a suit filed in 2010 by Chandler against Louisville metro government and several police officers. Chandler claimed that investigators ignored evidence of his innocence — “a veritable perfect storm of misconduct.”

Chandler has said that detectives coerced his confession to Whitfield’s murder, using scare tactics and coaching.

When Whitfield was murdered, Chandler was in his western Louisville home watching the movie “Single White Female,” he said Friday.

He was 21.

During his years in prison, Chandler said he missed seeing his family grow — and his freedom.

On Friday, Chandler said he still hasn’t figured out why he was targeted for Whitfield’s murder.

“I don’t know if it was a mistake in the beginning that snowballed, or if it was pure intention going in — I don’t know,” Chandler said