DPA President Mata has been cleared by a grand jury. They have decided not to indict Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata on a charge of tampering with evidence in the September 2018 Botham Jean murder investigation.
DPA President Mata and The Botham Jean/Amanda Guyger Case
The issue in question related to Mata’s actions during the investigation of the Botham Jean murder. Immediately after the shooting, Mata asked that a dash cam be turned off while talking to then-Officer Amber Guyger in a patrol car outside the apartment where it happened.
Mata attorney Robert Rodgers said in a statement, “It is a tremendous relief that things like the constitution, law and facts still matter. Mike Mata did absolutely nothing wrong in protecting an officer’s rights.”
During the Amber Guyger murder trial, prosecutors used security camera video to suggest the Dallas Police Association acted improperly when Mata arrived on the scene after the shooting. He is seen leaning into a patrol car Guyger was sitting in the back of and told another officer to turn off a dash cam while Guyger was on the phone with her attorney.
The Texas Fraternal Order Of Police President Steve Stribley said in a statement back in October 2019, they support Mata, saying he responded to the Guyger shooting in his capacity as President of the Dallas Police Association and he had a legal responsibility to request recording devices in a squad car to be turned off as Guyger was going to talk to her attorney on the phone.
The DPA website has no comments on the Mata matter or other recent stories about Lieutenant Brian William Deininger or Senior Corporal Daniel Collins.