BURLINGTON, Ky. -- Boone County Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally-Smith testified Friday against allegations that she withheld evidence in David Dooley’s murder trial.
Dooley, who worked as a janitor at Thermo Fischer Scientific in Florence, was convicted in 2014 of bludgeoning his co-worker, Michelle Mockbee, to death and abandoning her body in their office. He's maintained his innocence, and his current defense attorney, Deanna Dennison, is arguing for a new trial.
A security video recording showed an unknown man tugging on the Thermo Fisher Scientific office door the night before Mockbee's death, but Defense attorney Tom Pugh told a Boone County court Tuesday that he never saw that surveillance footage.
Tally-Smith said Friday in court all evidence was turned over appropriately.
“When somebody accuses you of withholding evidence and there’s documents that show that repeatedly we not only provided it but discussed it and told them how to get to it, it bothers me,” Tally-Smith said.
Tally-Smith said she wasn’t made aware of the warehouse's security video until Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce McVay told her about it after the trial.
“His main job while we were getting ready for trial was to review that video to make sure there was nothing on that video that I didn't know about,” Tally-Smith said.
Her testimony comes after Bruce McVay, the lead detective investigating Mockbee’s murder, acknowledged in court Thursday he and Tally-Smith had a sexual relationship. McVay often used the code name “Carver Davidson,” he said, and Tally-Smith’s code name was “Chiquita Queen.”
WATCH the exchange between Dennison and McVay in the player below.
Although McVay admitted he and Tally-Smith had a sexual relationship, she said in court Friday the two shared a “personal relationship.”
The surveillance video, she said, was not brought up until she and McVay had formed an intimate relationship after the trial.
“He's texting me about raccoons and then there’s others about deer that you see walking in the video, but he didn't tell me about the man he saw in the video that I wasn't aware of,” Tally-Smith said.
Tally-Smith maintained she gave the defense all the evidence for the trial.
“Seeing what’s happened through this whole circus and seeing fingers pointed at people that shouldn't be pointed at people, accusing them of murdering Michelle Mockbee with absolutely not a shred of evidence to back it up whatsoever is the complete opposite of everything that prosecutors do,” Tally-Smith said.
The retrial hearing will continue Monday.
