Police: Suspect in jogger attack showed ‘bizarre’ behavior

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Published Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 | 8:44 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 | 3:33 p.m.

The suspect in a random attack on a UNLV law professor while she was jogging in Henderson on Friday, leaving her in critical condition, displayed “bizarre” behavior before and after the incident, according to police.

After slamming Leslie Griffin, 60, onto a sidewalk and repeatedly kicking her, the suspect, Michael Joseph Mattingly, 23, stood over her and said, “She’s dying; she’s dying,” according to a witness who told him to stop, a Henderson Police arrest report said.

Mattingly then walked away calmly, police said.

The attack was reported about 4:15 p.m. near Paseo Verde Parkway and Desert Shadow Trail.

Mattingly, who was on supervised release in another battery case, turned himself in after a woman he subsequently tried to carjack nearby convinced him to talk to officers, police said.

He was booked at the Henderson Detention Center on one count each of felony battery with substantial bodily harm, robbery and misdemeanor battery, police said.

In the arrest report, police called Griffin’s medical prognosis “poor,” noting she suffered two brain bleeds and hadn’t regained consciousness. She was at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

Mattingly told police he was on his lunch break from his job at a nearby grocery store and saw Griffin fall; he said he didn’t attack or beat her, according to the report. He stopped answering questions when he was asked about the alleged attempted carjacking, police said.

Police described his demeanor as being “very bizarre,” the report said.

Management at the store where Mattingly worked told investigators his behavior had been strange and aggressive after he showed up late to work earlier in the day.

Griffin teaches constitutional law at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law.

She attended Stanford Law School and obtained her doctorate in religious studies from Yale University, according to UNLV.

In a statement, the law school said Griffin “is a treasured and admired member of the law school community. All of her friends and colleagues — students, faculty, and staff — are shocked and saddened by this senseless attack, and we are here to support Leslie and her family. All of us at the law school and at UNLV are thinking of Leslie and her family in this difficult time.”