By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A former deputy U.S. marshal was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to 15 months in prison for obstruction of justice – a charge stemming from lies he told to police after he fatally shot a man while off duty, the Justice Department said.
Matthew Itkowitz, 47, who lives in Suffern, N.Y., was found guilty in July of obstruction of justice by a federal jury in July. Authorities charged that Itkowitz shot the man who intervened in a fight between him and his wife. He claimed it was self defense.
A Justice Department press release said the conviction was based on false statements Itkowitz made to Los Angeles police homicide detectives following his fatal shooting of a man in West Hollywood in March of 2008. Itkowitz falsely characterized an altercation that led to the shooting, and his version of events was contradicted by a video made by a security camera in the alley where the shooting took place.
Additionally, Itkowitz was charged with violating the victim’s constitutional rights to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer.
