Thursday, July 14, 2011
Police beat Twice-fired state trooper reinstated
Posted by David Koon on Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 11:25 AM
UPDATE: The Arkansas State Police Commission ruled unanimously to reinstate Trooper Andrew Rhew. Read on for David Koon's dispatches from the hearing throughout the day.
Caught after the Commission's decision came in, Arkansas State Police commander Col. JR Howard said "The commission has spoken, and we will abide by their decision," adding that the ASP will work to make sure Rhew makes a seamless transition back into the organization. Asked if the Commission's decision is an indictment of electronic data over old-fashioned crash reconstruction techniques, Howard said: "I think it shows that even the experts still disagree on things."
Today's dispatches from the Commission hearing room:
An appeal hearing is underway today at the Arkansas State Police Commission for Andrew Rhew, the state trooper who was fired (twice) as a result of the fatal crash in which his patrol car collided in Manila with a car driven by Vickie Freemyer, a Blytheville teacher, while he was rushing to a call in Osceola.
The state police said today that a black box in Rhew's car recorded the trooper going 103 mph in a 45 mph zone with no lights or sirens. Rhew was en route to make a call to arrest someone with an outstanding warrant at a driver's license testing station in Osceola.
Rhew's counsel, Robert Newcomb, told the commission that Freemyer was at fault for the crash.
"The accident is almost a red herring in that she didn't have the right away, was supposed to stop and pulled out right in front of him," he said in his opening statement.
Newcomb said he would present four witnesses who disagree with what the black box reported and 26 state troopers who will testify that they don't turn on their lights or sirens when going on calls for a number of reasons.
A lot of troopers speed without their lights and sirens on, Newcomb said. "Are we going to fire the majority of the state police?"
According to state police, the impact of Knew's trooper car on Freemyer's Toyota sedan pushed Freemyer's passenger door inside the vehicle to where it touched the steering wheel.
Freemyer's vehicle was moved by a wrecker before Trooper Bobby Clemence, a member of the State Police accident reconstruction scene, arrived, so he wasn't able to determine final rest, which he said is crucial in determining speed in an accident. The best estimate he could offer, Clemence said, was 59 miles per hour for a minimum speed.
Asked if the damage done to Freemyer's vehicle was consistent with a 103-mph-impact, Clemence said he thought it was consistent with a 59-60 mph range. He said he wasn't aware of the what the black box had recorded until months later.
The appeal is likely to extend into tomorrow.
UPDATE: In the second phase of the appeal hearing, Retired Trooper Lt. Pete Westerman, also of the State Police crime scene reconstruction team, said that Trooper Clemence figured his crash data based on the measure of linear momentum, which only works if you've got every detail correct. Two problems in Clemence's findings, according to Westerman: Clemence estimated the weight of the trooper car instead of finding an accurate reading and didn't take into account the two to four feet of mud in the ditch where the two cars ended up. "Mud and water is kind of like a glove catching a ball," Westerman said.
He also said that he tested a Dodge Charger, like the one Rhew was driving, at 103 mph and its RPMs matched what the crash data recorder captured.
In cross examination, Westerman admitted that "the crush" of the car didn't square with an impact of 103 mph. "In my experience if you have an impact of more than 70 mph you actually have disintegration," he said. When asked if he'd ever responded to a call exceeding the speed limit without using his lights or siren, he said he had many times, adding "that's the nature of the beast."
He also said that the crash data recorder in the Toyota said that the Freemyer was going about 11 mph at impact and that the car never stopped at the stop sign.
Next up, Corporal Douglas Cash, also of the accident reconstruction team, talked about the information on Rhew's crash data recorder. Two seconds before impact, the crash data recorder said the Charger was doing 101 mph. One second before, it said the car was doing 103 mph. Nine-tenths of a second before impact, the brakes were applied. And by 1/10th of a second, it had slowed to 87 mph. The speed at impact was 84 mph to 86 mph. According to crash data, the Charger slid 118 feet after the crash.
Asked if he'd ever exceeded the speed limit without using his lights or sirens, Cash said he had several times.
Next up, George Hall Jr., a forensic engineer from Tulsa, said he thought other witnesses were "glossing over" the impact. In his investigation, he said he noticed that a piece of the Charger's bumper was embedded in the Toyota and that the impact was "as substantial as [he'd] seen other than in a semi-truck impact." Hall said he had no reason to doubt the crash data recorder. It's records matched his findings.
Colonel JR Howard, Director of the State Police, testified next. Asked why he fired Rhew, he said he went to crash scene three times and said, "There's something about seeing the lay of the land... you just get a feel for the scene." He said he looked at that and saw the damage to Trooper Rhew's vehicle and thought 59 mph didn't mesh. Howard said Manila, Ark. is a very populated area and that Rhew's speed was extreme for the area.
"I can't help but think, my gosh, if he'd had his lights on we wouldn't be sitting here today," Howard said.
Asked by attorney Newcomb if the Manila police department had clocked Rhew at 100 mph, if he would've fired Rhew, Howard said no. Asked if he had 50 officers who say they've exceeded speed limit if he'd fire them all, Howard said no. "It's hard to do a scenario. Each case is based on the facts of each particular incident... I had to deal with cold, hard facts."
UPDATE II: Special Agent Ron Hitt of the Arkansas State Police’s Criminal Investigation Division, testified that he investigated the accident and arrived about an hour after the wreck.
Hitt interviewed several witnesses, including one woman who was parked at a nearby Sonic Drive-In and was the only person who actually saw the accident occur. According to Hitt’s testimony, the woman told him that Freemyer’s Toyota had only tapped the brakes at the stop sign before pulling into the path of Rhew’s patrol car.
Hitt also testified that he spoke with the doctor who examined Freemyer’s body. The doctor told Hitt he had found three medications in her system: two antidepressants and one amphetamine of the kind used to treat attention deficit disorder. Hitt said the doctor told him the amount of amphetamine in Freemyer’s body was nearly three times what is considered a therapeutic level.
The doctor told Hitt that Freemyer would have been ”overstimulated and at least mildly impaired” and that her driving ability would have been compromised.
In what has become something of a recurring theme, Newcomb asked Hitt if he had ever driven at a high rate of speed without turning on his siren and blue lights. Hitt said he had.
Tommy Wicker, a retired captain with the Arkansas State Police, testified that members of Troop C — Rhew’s troop — had been instructed to get to the Osceola station post haste in the event of an arrest call.
Lt. Robert Speer, an assistant troop commander with Troop C, confirmed that there have been problems with the Osceola testing center and said that starting in July 2009, troopers had been instructed to get to the center quickly if there was trouble.
“We arrest people over there every testing day,” Speer said.
Captain Keith Eremea, who has been a trooper for 34 years, said he too had driven at speeds of up to 150 mph without using blue lights and sirens. He said that although he wouldn’t drive 103 mph within city limits without using lights and sirens, there are times when it’s preferable not to use them because they can cause other drivers to panic.
UPDATE III: Dr. Larry Williams, retired professor from ASU Jonesboro, testifying for the appellant, said he believes that the data recorder in Rhew's car was inaccurate, based on three factors: The vehicle damage wasn't enough to indicate a 100 mph crash; the two cars would've stuck together, he said. The speed listed was inconsistent with how far the two cars traveled. There were no skid marks; even with anti-lock breaks, you still have shadow marks, he said.
Based on his observations of the crash data, Williams said Rhew was doing 68 to 70 mph.
Rhew, who was leaning forward and bumping his feet up and down nervously throughout the appeal, told the commission that he lived north of Manila and was very familiar with the area. If called out to the license center, he was to "go," Rhew said his superiors had told him.
"At the time of the call, there was quite a bit of traffic presence and I personally felt that it would do more damage to activate emergency equipment," he said.
He said he wasn't paying attention to speedometer, and he 200 to 300 yards away when he first saw the Freemyer's car easing across.
Asked by a commissioner if he was going 100 mph, Rhew said no.
Dr. Hall, the crash scene investigator who testified earlier, once again returned to rebut Williams portrayal of the scene. In the US, there are 1,000 people on the civilian side who are fairly active in the crash investigation, he said. "Dr. Williams is the only one of us among 1,000 who is doing this work who would testify that CDRs are inaccurate."
The data in a black box comes from the same place as your speedometer does, he said.
Comments (23)
Showing 1-23 of 23
"A lot of other troopers do it," Newcomb said of speeding without their lights or sirens on. "Are we going to fire the majority of the state police?" ... ummm yeah!!! Especially if the regs say you should operate with lights & siren.
And that stuff about the blackbox being wrong? Bullshit!!! You should be sanctioned for even bringing up stupid crap like that.
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Talk about a tragedy, and talk about a tragedy that never should have happened. Vicki Freemeyer was as good a person as one could ever hope to meet, a schoolteacher enroute to a Jonesboro hospital to visit her dad, a surgery patient.
When from out of nowhere and with no flashing blue lights or siren, here comes Trooper Rhew blasting into her side. Whether 59 mph or 103 mph (as the trooper’s black box showed), it doesn’t matter: Rhew simply should not have been driving in so fast and so careless a manner in a 45-mph zone.
And just to check on somebody with an outstanding warrant? Please.
Vickie Freemyer: An untimely and needless end to her life. She should have lived to see her grandchild who was born a month later. And another grandchild born since then.
I’m usually on the cop’s side. But I believe the ASP director took the correct action in firing Rhew. Were I king, the firing would stand.
The cop was in the wrong. Ban him from being a policeman ever again. I would think differently if he had of had his lights and siren on.
A MOTORIST can come o a DEAD stop at a red light or stop sign, see nothing coming, pull out to go; but if a motorist is flying like a bat out of hell, they are upon you within a split second.
Maybe you don't want to alert someone by using the siren but most people can't see the police lights of a car miles away through the walls of their house. At least, give the other drivers a break. The whole police action is criminal.
And if those black boxes are "not accurate", then the police shouldn't ever be allowed to use them in accident reconstruction. Either are accurate as can be or they are not but this excuse is too easy. If did those witnesses who say he wasn't going that fast have radar guns? Most people standing on the side of the road have no idea of how fast a car is going by them.
CBB, you can tell whether or not a car is doing 60 or 100 as it passes you. The sound is much, much different. While I think the police officer certainly has much to answer for, Ms. Freemeyer was not without blame. She pulled out in front of him, either without looking at all or perhaps only glancing at traffic. If you take a good long look at traffic or look twice, you can easily determine whether or not an oncoming vehicle is going too fast for you to pull out.
Stopping distance on clean dry level pavement, with reasonably good tires, with above average driving skill is deceleration of 20 fps. That translates to:
45 mph=90 feet
60 mph=160 feet
103 mph = 470 feet
In other words, a reasonable driver allowing for reasonable wrecklessness in other drivers (60 mph in a 45 mph zone) would need TRIPLE THE DISTANCE for 103 in a 45.
Fault would be entirely with the driver moving at 228% of the speed limit. No matter the circumstances.
Another occasional poster on this blog is a first responder and years ago convinced me that police speeding should only be done to save the life of another.
His "law and order/if you don't persue criminals they will know and all get away" stance evaporated the instant his firetruck arrived at a car crash scene and they heard the wail of a mother clutching the body of her child killed by a fleeing speeder (didn't stop because he had unpaid traffic fines).
He said that sound will wake you years later and you don't dare go back to sleep for fear the sound might come back.
Warrants would seldom justify the risk to other motorists.
Dismissing him was a minor thing. Bring manslaughter charges against the reckless fool.
Ark State Police and local police are better at witness control than the Mafia ever dreamed about.
Doi
You are correct about the sound of a passing speeder, the issue is more judging a car's speed at a distance approaching. Once a estimate is made and the victim pulls out there is no redo.
I can go wizzing down Cantrell Hill around the curve and always stop before hitting a stopped vehicle but if a car is wizzing up hill in my lane I am not at fault.
100 plus in a 45 is so far beyond an expected situation that someone paying reasonable amount of attention would would mis judge.
If 228% over the legal LIMIT does not shift responsibility, what speed does? Mach 1?(speed of sound)
186,000 miles per second?
(speed of light)
This is difficult to understand, especially when you take into consideration Rhew plead guilty to negligent homicide, a Class A Misdemeanor.
Here's the link to the Arkansas Times article back in April:
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archi…
I'm thinking any other state employee who was driving a state vehicle would have been fired, and certainly would not have been reinstated.
Rhew just needs to find another job and move on.
"I can go wizzing down Cantrell Hill around the curve and always stop before hitting a stopped vehicle but if a car is wizzing up hill in my lane I am not at fault." --Citizen1
Actually that would seem to make my case, Citizen. It seems both drivers made a tragic mistake, but two wrongs obviously don't make a right, as the saying goes.
Incidentally, my comment about sound referred to my understanding that there were witnesses that saw the trooper's driving just before the accident. Upon rereading, I see that I may have misread or misinterpreted that portion of the story.
One final comment about misunderstandings, misinterpretations, misjudgement, mis-(anything): The trooper said he first saw the Freemeyer car pulling out about 200 or 300 yards ahead. My guess is he meant feet rather than yards since even at 100+ mph, he should have been able easily to stop within the space of two to three football fields.
The officer was a fault regardless. They should never be allowed to speed with their lights off. NEVER
yeah thats cool.....when someone breaks into your house raping your wife and daughter...I hope they run the lights and siren and the creep gets away and is never caught- you can't do their job, except the Monday monring quarterbacking from the security of your living room
Jeff,
As you will see by clicking this link, Rhew was over twenty miles from his destination while he sped with neither lights nor siren on: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q…
I find that to be irresponsible behavior. You're welcome to call that observation Monday morning quarterbacking. I'd prefer to call it common sense.
As for someone maybe raping my wife and my daughter--at the same time? That's a pretty remarkable rapist you know, Jeff--what about the real daughter who is dead?
Thanks to this ruling, you can expect this justification to showe up in court again and again as a defense of some horrible crash.
If you are 20 miles away, there is no damn reason not to be using both your lights and sirens. You need both as new cars are almost sound-proof and the siren alone can be an issue. Go in heavy traffic and see what I mean and watch or park near a busy intersection with the windows shut and the radio on and see if you hear a damn thing.
Glad this "officer" lives far away from me.
And no, I've never seen another state police/highway patrol vehicle doing over 100 mph w/o sirens/lights in my life.
I've seen them going fast but not 100 mph.
All I can say is that this is so wrong. It's just ridiculous. I have the utmost respect for police offers and the law,but this is wrong.
Its amazing how everyone who couldnt and really dont understatnd a cops job has an something negative to say..Yes it was a tragedy. But maybe if she wasnt dopeed up, she would have been able to judge that a car was coming and not enter the intersection going 11mph.. When lights and sirens are on people stop in the road, want get over and panic and cause a crash themselves in certain instatences. Its cool when you call the police dont complain about how long it took them to stop that crackhead from harming you, because cops will drive slower and not be in a hurry in fear of someting happening.. Next cops wont have guns...
Now who can argue with that? I think we're all in debt to Gabby Johnson for stating what needed to be said. I am particularly glad that these lovely children are here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed the courage little seen in this day and age.
Joe Bob,
Who said the woman who was killed was "doped up"? I didn't see it in the story. If you know something we don't, tell us.
And when you say, "When lights and sirens are on people stop in the road, want get over and panic and cause a crash themselves in certain instatences," I wonder: Why do we never hear of ambulances or fire trucks or EMTs running at a hundred plus with their lights and sirens off?
Whoops! I should have reread the original posting. The story does say the victim had drugs in her system. Joe Bob was accurate on that. It still doesn't mean she deserved to die.
I think troopers and police in general do a great job I'm thankful for but this "doped-up" excuse is nonsense. I was there at the hearing last week for most of it. There was apparently a preliminary toxicology report or blood test that showed some amounts of drugs according to a special agent who conducted the criminal investigation. I saw the State Police attorney go over to Santa Claus (Newcomb) during a break and I could sort of make out his words "...bull%$$$." Then there was a dicsussion with the hearing officer dude up on the platform and when they were back on the record Downs, the State Police attorney, pointed out that Newcomb, the trooper's lawyer, was in on some sort of later conference call with the State Medical Examiner, Dr. Kokes, and the prosecutor in the criminal case, and Kokes withdrew his preliminary assesment based on a review of the dead woman's prescription. So I don't think you can say she was stoned out of her mind or something like the trooper's attorney argued or implied. And this wasn't a civil lawsuit anyway so what she did didn't matter I don't think.
My impression was that the commission had made up its mind ahead of time, whatever the reason. This was a disciplinary action by the Colonel of the State Police based on the trooper breaking a law that requires lights and sirens to be on when they respond to a call or whatever. The trooper's arguement was basically "everybody does it." During one break I heard one Commissioner say to the other "I hope we get this done today." The other replied, "Well, we know which way we're going with this." And the State Police attorney hadn't even finished his case yet at that point. I can't say for sure what they were referring to but can only assume since I think they took about 5 minutes to go deliberate before voting. If this had been in a real court the State Police attorney would have surely won. There was a violation of a law (something, something "202") and their policy, the trooper admitted didn't have his lights and siren on and the black box showed 103 mph 1 second before he killed the woman.
Several of the dead woman's daughters were in sitting the audience right in front of me. After the trooper got a year probation in the criminal trial and the governor-appointed Commission (apparently they all own banks according to one of the chairman's little jokes during the thing) reversed the termination, I would bet they will be after a huge lawsuit. Their attorney, Johnny or Billy Coleman I think, was there watching the whole thing with them and had to keep trying to get them to calm down. One of them clapped sarcastically when the vote was taken. Of course those millions they get are our tax dollars. I wish the least the rich Commissioners would do pay that bill for us.
A bad deal that will just get worse over time is my impression of the whole thing. I think I'll give the Governor's office my 2 cents on his appointees at the State Police Commission since I don't think they are elected. I wonder if any of them have any former law enforcement experience at all.
Now about that Highway Department....
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