By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
June 16, 2006
A defense attorney asked the state to investigate the Greenwich Police Department yesterday, saying it rigs investigations of car crashes involving its officers, while the town announced it will fight the $910,000 a jury awarded a young man in a collision between a police officer and a civilian.
Last week, after a four-day trial in Stamford, a six-person jury decided that Officer Andrew Kelly was negligent in the crash that severely injured James Peterson, 21.
A figure closer to $600,000 would be more equitable, Town Attorney John Wayne Fox said, because the jury failed to consider the partial responsibility they found the civilian driver had in the crash.
"We do believe there is a basis for seeking a reduction in the verdict," Fox said yesterday. "Motions are being prepared and need to be filed."
On May 3, 2002, Kelly was rushing up Lake Avenue in a patrol car with lights and sirens activated to respond to what turned out to be a fender bender on the Merritt Parkway, when Peterson turned left onto Lake Avenue from North Maple Avenue in his family's BMW 330i. The police car smashed into the driver's side door area of the BMW. Peterson suffered numerous pelvic fractures, a ruptured bladder and lacerated urethra, permanently impairing the function of those body parts, Stratton said.
The town argued that Kelly's response to the Merritt Parkway accident fell within the reasonable standards of concern for the safety of the public.
But the jury found that Kelly had broken the state's emergency response statute by failing to show due regard for the safety of other motorists when responding to the parkway accident.
Peterson's suit also contended that police conducted a sham investigation of the accident, finding Peterson at fault to protect Kelly, a charge that town attorneys have denied.
In his complaint to Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, Peterson's defense attorney, Michael Stratton, asked for a full investigation of the Greenwich Police Department, saying that the agency appears to have "an illegal double standard" when investigating accidents involving their own officers.
The department "actively fails to preserve evidence" in such car crashes, Stratton told Morano in a letter dated June 15. "According to witnesses who testified in (the recent negligence trial), statements are never taken from the involved officer and unfavorable eyewitness accounts are ignored."
Further, Stratton claims, the police tried to get an arrest warrant for the young man injured in the crash without collecting statements material to the report.
Peterson was later given a ticket for failure to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle and failure to grant the right of way at a stop sign. Peterson admitted running the stop sign at Lake and North Maple avenues, but in the negligence trial, the jury found this didn't absolve Kelly of driving too fast.
Town Attorney Fox rejected Stratton's claim, saying that the police conducted a thorough investigation of the crash.
Morano said he referred the matter to State's Attorney David Cohen of the Stamford judicial district. Cohen could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Stratton, of the New Haven law firm Stratton-Faxon, also could not be reached for comment yesterday.
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