Lee Coel, who was fired from the Punta Gorda Police Department, is accused of manslaughter in the death of a retired librarian during a citizens training exercise last year.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY — A former Punta Gorda police officer awaiting trial in Charlotte County on a manslaughter charge provided hundreds of pages of media accounts and other evidence to support his request for a change of venue.

Lee Michael Coel, 29, said in an affidavit that the "nature and extent" of publicity about his case, which includes stories about a police canine dog bite incident in 2015 and the shooting a 73-year-old retiree in the summer of 2016, necessitates the move.

Coel, who was fired from the Punta Gorda Police Department in March, asked that the trial be moved to Broward County, over 160 miles and 2.5 hours away.

"Based on all the publicity, which is documented in the accompanying Motion For Change Of Venue To Broward County, and for reasons set forth in the accompanying motion, I am convinced that I will not be able to get a fair and impartial jury or a fair trial if the case is tried in Charlotte County, Florida or any county in southwest part of Florida," Coel said in the sworn statement.

Coel used the well-publicized and rare misdemeanor trial of former Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis, which took place over four days in June, as further evidence he cannot get a fair trial. Coel's name was often mentioned in trial coverage.

But Coel, a graduate of Broward College police academy, is also well-known in Broward County, where he spent 14 months with the Miramar Police Department. His application to Punta Gorda stated that he was cleared of several excessive force complaints, but acknowledged that he violated two department policies.

Mary Knowlton, a retired librarian, was killed when Coel pointed a handgun at her supposedly loaded with blanks and then pulled the trigger several times during a use-of-force drill. The gun, which was actually loaded with live rounds, fired shots that ricocheted off a nearby car and struck Knowlton, who fell dead in the parking lot of the police station where a citizen’s police academy was being held.

Coel recently filed a civil suit asking a judge to reverse the order of the Board of Trustees of the Punta Gorda Police Officers' Pension Fund that ruled him ineligible in July for disability benefits due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he claims to now suffer after the killing.

Before he was fired, he claimed that he suffers from PTSD and other impairments that render him "unable to perform his duties as an officer, and that he has "total and permanent disabilities."

Coel, whose trial date has not been set, is scheduled for a case management hearing Jan. 11, 2018.