NJ State Trooper Found Not Guilty in Crash That Killed 2 Teens

[Mike 03]

Source: KYW, pre-eminent news radio station in the vicinity of the trial

A jury has found a New Jersey state trooper not guilty of vehicular homicide.

Robert Higbee had been charged in a 2006 car crash in rural Cape May County that left two teenage sisters dead.

The not guilty verdict coming on Monday in state superior court.

Higbee (above, in file photo) was pursuing a speeding suspect. Prosecutors had argued he was reckless when he ran a stop sign.

He could have faced up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.





Read more: http://www.kyw1060.com/NJ-State-Trooper-Not-Guilty-in-Crash-That-Killed-2/4557517

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No comments in particular, but having watched every inch of this trial, I am very emotional tonight and would be interested in the thoughts of others who have observed this trial, even just portions of it, or followed it in some other fashion.

Whew. I'm just glad I was not on that jury.

May the Becker sisters rest in peace. They were hardly mentioned during the trial.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. This high speed chase madness must stop!

There is no justification for it UNLESS lives are endangered. If they've got someone locked in a trunk then fine, chase them. But for speeding or a stolen car? FTS. Not worth risking the lives of innocent bystanders.

[Mike 03]

2. Yes, at least they should have to run the siren and lights, and obey

stop signs.

[WriteDown]

3. There is a big downside to that idea though...

Anyone who sees a cop trying to pull them over would just start speeding up to avoid getting a ticket.

[paulsby]

33. my agency has a very liberal pursuit policy

and in the last 10 yrs, in HUNDREDS of pursuits , NOBODY has died.

the question is, like many political questions, what are the tradeoffs.

NOT chasing stolen cars means many many more get away with it.

england, fwiw (because people here love to compare the US disfavorably with europe) takes stolen cars much more seriously than we do. their punishments are stricter than most US jurisdictions. they also PRACTICE their pursuit training in REAL traffic (we use a closed course).

i agree that agencies shouldn't pursue for speeding. i know of no agency that does.

[Fumesucker]

41. And yet, strangely enough, "England" has a far lower percentage of its citizens

Incarcerated than does the "lenient" USA.

Go figure.

[paulsby]

42. that's great but irrelevant

cause we weren't talking about incarceration IN GENERAL, we were talking about auto theft and england's approach to it vis a vis pursuits vs. our approach, since that's at least relevant to the issue. your tangent isn't

try to keep up.

the facts are clear. the US is more lenient IN REGARDS TO AUTO THEFT than the UK is. also, some agencies in the UK practice frigging pursuits in REAL traffic. iow, fake pursuits, but real traffic.

[Fumesucker]

43. It's called "thread drift"

And it's a regular feature of online discussions.

I'll post what I please and when I please.

[paulsby]

44. i'll be sure to look for your

tangents in the future.

[Fumesucker]

45. Do try not to be a jerk..

[paulsby]

46. i was just trying to be chahming

it wasn't working? darnit. i need to exhume my miss manners tomes and get to work!

[Hello_Kitty]

56. Note that the suspect in the OP was being chased for SPEEDING, not auto theft. eom.

[paulsby]

60. correct

and fwiw, my agency prohibits a pursuit for speeding, and most do.

if in the instant case, the officer's agency also prohibits a pursuit for speeding that would still not necessarily imply a guilty verdict for the reckless component of the charge.

it will make for a sweet-ass lawsuit though

[Libertas1776]

4. So according to the jury's logic

I, an ordinary citizen, can speed thru a stop sign if I see fit and to hell with the consequences. It would just be a tragic accident for which no one can be blamed. Hey, he was cop in a cop car and didn't need to put on his sirens, He might just as well have been driving a regular unmarked car.
But hey, that's the court's logic.

[Dark]

6. He didn't have his siren on? And they ACQUITTED him?

:wtf:

[Mike 03]

9. Not the court's logic....

It was the jury's logic.

[Mz Pip]

5. I suppose there

are times when a high speed chase is justified but it seems they are used far too often for trivial matters.

THe article isn't clear as to why the chase occurred. Was the driver of the other car just speeding or was he a suspect in some violent crime? Seems like if the suspect was just speeding it might have been better to just radio in his license rather than make matters worse. Of course if the suspect had taken out 2 kids by running a stop sign he would have gone to jail for sure. If the accident occurred a few seconds earlier that is probably how it would have gone down. It would have been the suspect who would have hit the kids and not the officer.

I can't imagine what the family of those two girls must be feeling. What a terrible tragedy.

[Downwinder]

7. In N. J.Isn't an emergency vehicle required to have lights and siren

operating when they are breaking traffic laws?

I thought that was pretty standard in all states.

Are the Officer and State libel for civil wrongful death suits?

[Mike 03]

10. Not according to the testimony.

A State Trooper can speed when "closing the gap," but he is not allowed to blow through stop signs.

His defense is that he did not see it, although the prosecution's evidence made a powerful argument that he did see it.

[Downwinder]

12. Wish I could get away with "never seeing a stop sign."

[Mike 03]

13. That's the thing. To believe the defense experts, we would always be getting into

collisions, because we could only see about three degrees in our visual field.

If that was true, I would have been in a million accidents.

It goes against common sense.

[paulsby]

36. why do you assume he's "getting away with it"

he wasn't found criminally responsible for RECKLESS>

it does not follow he won't be punished.

[paulsby]

34. that may be true, but that wasn't the question here

the question was what is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted recklessly.

that is a much higher standard than the preponderance needed in a civil suit, and also the civil suit question is different. you don't need to prove reckless, merely negligence (or gross negligence depending on ...)

[paulsby]

35. that may be true, but that wasn't the question here

the question was what is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted recklessly.

that is a much higher standard than the preponderance needed in a civil suit, and also the civil suit question is different. you don't need to prove reckless, merely negligence (or gross negligence depending on ...)

[brentspeak]

8. Something's not right here

Cop 1) blows a stop sign at 70 mph; 2) fails to turn on either his lights or his siren; 3) witnesses report that the officer was driving "crazy". So how does a jury rule that the cop is not negligent?

And all to catch a speeder who was going 50 in a 35 mph zone -- in the opposite lane.

[Mike 03]

14. I'm with you.

The evidence you cited, plus the data from the power train module, and the defendant's testimony are very suspicious.

When he keeps saying he was "approaching" something, what does he mean he was approaching?

He means he was approaching an intersection.

All he recalls is:

Approaching
Braking
Darkness

Approaching what?????

He knows damned well what he was approaching. An intersection and a stop sign.

[imdjh]

47. Did they ever say why the third vehicle (survivors) was stopped?

I think the third vehicle was occupied by someone named Taylor. He and his passenger were hit either by the police car or the girls' car. Did they ever say what the position of the Taylor car was and why it was stopped? I don't recall reading that.

[atreides1]

28. Not Guilty by reason of being a Cop

That's the only excuse that the jury needed. The two girls that died were not important and besides they should not have been in the officer's way.

[ThomCat]

55. Yes, one more example of cops given total immunity

from the law. I'm sick of cops being above the law. No good ever comes of it. :(

[GoddessOfGuinness]

29. Because the cop is always ruled to be in the right.

I've known several people who were involved in accidents with cops who were on calls. Some who ran into the cop, and some who were hit by the cop. It's always the same result, regardless of who's to blame.

[paulsby]

38. utter crap

and DOJ statistics etc. prove ytou wrong.

it is not always the same result. cops are found criminally and/or civilly liable for collisions all the frigging time. heck, i know several who have been.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

49. Probably depends on the area.

It's not the case in my county...especially if you're black.

Glad you live in an area where justice is for everybody.

[Tempest]

53. Same for mine

In every case of a cop shooting or accident since I've lived here (9 years), the police were cleared.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

54. Recently had a case of vigilante justice here...

The guy was accused of killing a cop. He didn't live to get a trial, and it looks like those responsible are going to walk. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060201806.html

[Tempest]

59. We had the same thing here in 2005

And there still hasn't been a trial for the officers who beat the inmate to death.

http://accident-law.freeadvice.com/wrongful_death/california-inmate-beating-wrongful-death.htm

[paulsby]

37. get the facts right

the question wasn't whether he was NEGLIGENT

it was whether he was RECKLESS

entirely different standards

[Mike 03]

11. I just have to say, Thank You for those of you who are responding. I

really appreciate reading the thoughts and responses of others regarding this incident.

Thanks

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

15. Did prosecutors over reach in this case?

I worked a very similar accident. One civilian dead and a kid critically injured and the officer was critically injured. It took us an hour to cut the kid out of the car. The officer eventually pled to a lesser charge vehicular manslaughter I believe, was given 4 years probation if memory serves.

David

[Mike 03]

16. Yes, because they are asking a jury to guess what the state of mind was

of a human being prior to an accident.

There is no way I can think of to prove what the state of mind is of anybody without circumstantial evidence.

[Mike 03]

17. It is heartbreaking.

I just listened to an interview with both the State Trooper and the mother of the dead girls.

I have nothing profound to add, other than that in NJ "Vehicular Homicide" and "Vehicular Manslaughter" are the same thing, and I think the "Homicide" addition makes a huge difference in how jurors think of an offense.

Also, the difference between "reckless" and "negligent" and "incautious" easily makes for confusion among some.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

19. Juries don't like finding cops guilty of homicide unless it is overt.

Is there a involuntary manslaughter charge in NJ?

[Mike 03]

21. For whatever reason, "homicide" and "manslaughter" are synonymous in this

case.

Homicide is such a more shocking word than manslaughter, though.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

24. So there is no manslaughter charge at all in NJ? That's interesting.

[paulsby]

39. homicide merely means death caused by another person

it does not even imply wrongful behavior, see for example " justifiable homicide", "excusable homicide"

homicide itself makes no value judgment, it merely says that the death was caused by another person.

manslaughter otoh necessarily involves culpability.

[imdjh]

31. I think so. I predicted a hung jury. Reckless driving with injury might have gotten a conviction

Whatever they call that in NJ, the jury could have more easily convicted him of reckless with injury; the judge could have given him up to a year in jail or probation or combo.

Frankly, I'm not sure they would have gotten a conviction in any event. But at least with the lesser charge, you don't have the jury in the position of sending a cop to prison for 20 years over an unintentional result. It's not like he intended to kill the girls. If the jury had acquitted on the lesser charge, then we would know for sure that they simply weren't going to convict a cop, as it is we can theorize that they weren't going to convict a cop of something as serious as if he had gotten drunk and killed a pedestrian on the way home.

[blossomstar]

18. Seems odd to me

that the sisters were hardly mentioned as you stated "May the Becker sisters rest in peace. They were hardly mentioned during the trial." If that's the case, no wonder the jury acquited the guy. They'd mostly heard about the cop and the bad guy speeding. The trial should have been all about those sisters who paid the price with their lives for the negligence of BOTH the police officer and the speeder! It was a huge error in judgment for the officer. There have to be other factors involved for the cop to make the decision to do all that he did with a speeder in the opposite lane of 55/35??? Was the cop letting off steam from a personal matter? Had he had words spoken to him by his superiors? Sounds like "pent up frustration" on the part of the cop to me... He way overshot the normal or expected reaction to a speeder needlessly putting others in jepardy, in this case these beautiful young girls died because of it. Just my humble opinion. Glad I was not on that jury. He would not have gotten off. He even looks like a hothead to me.

[downindixie]

20. I used to work with a cop who would

trail a car at a long distance and when he decided to stop them,he would turn on his blue lights.He was wanting a chase and this was his approach to making it happen.

[Mike 03]

22. Maybe one way to genreate some goodness out of this is to have

Higbee innovate some ways to redesign the rules as to what troopers are permitted to do during pulling speeders over.

[Downwinder]

27. Can the parents file a civil suit?

[paulsby]

40. of course nt

[Mike 03]

23. Just to clarify, I admit 100% that "vehicular homicide" is far more shocking than its

synonym in other regions and states, "vehicular manslaughter."

Your observation is very true.

I have to confess, I'm a little bit sad that this case was not of more importance to my friends here at DU.

[hedgehog]

25. We had a lovely case a few years back here in Syracuse.

A trooper in a Chevy Tahoe decided to chase a speeding motorcylist and ended up hitting a tree at 90MPH. The Motorcyclist was convicted for negligent homicide!

http://www.nystpba.org/pages/public/showPubDocDetails.asp?news_id=2444

[imdjh]

50. I disagree with that verdict.

Looking for an extreme extension of that logic, if I am violating the noise ordinance and the police officer on the way to my house has an accident, is it my fault?
How about a more similar scenario. I push the yellow and a cop three blocks back thinks I have run the red light. I continue on my way, unaware that that police officer intends to nab me. He speeds up and slams into a cement truck and kills himself. Is that my fault?

I'm curious as to how they caught the motorcyclist in that case, James Camcross. If the cop was dead, then how did they find out who the motorcyclist was?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

57. Neither of those cases should involve a high speed pursuit.

[imdjh]

58. OK, but what killed Trooper Todechini?

Was it that Carncross was speeding? That he was "purposefully eluding"? Or was it that the trooper was driving a bouncy box of steel that has no business going 90 MPH on a freeway much less a secondary road? Chasing a motorcycle with an SUV is something other than good judgement. Had this turned out differently, there would be those who would fault the police officer for participating/promoting a high speed chase which resulted i the death of an innocent. Would they not? I don't happen to be in that camp most of the time, but in the Carncross case I simply don't see how Carncross caused the death of the officer. Had the officer radioed in "Hey, I'm in the Blazer there's no way I'm going to catch this guy, keep your eyes out for an orange crotch rocket with matching helmet." then he would still be alive.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

61. That would be one school of thought.

A reasonable person who is purposefully eluding a police officer should know that they are endangering themselves, the officer and the public. If someone dies as a result of the pursuit that entails from that person purposefully eluding then that person is at least somewhat culpable in the death. In this situation while your points are true it is also true that if Carncross had pulled over as required by law then the officer would still be alive. A good defense attorney would have brought those mitigating factors up at trial and definitely at sentencing.

David

[NJmaverick]

26. This is horrible news

what a gross miscarriage of justice. Just pushes my opinion of juries even lower.

[imdjh]

30. Did they ever catch the speeder?

There is someone who's still sweating.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

32. Putting on my flame retardant shorts....

I'll start my response, but telling those of you who dont know, that I work in Law Enforcement. But I also realize not all LEO's are good guys, Ive worked with alot of idiots over the years. As far, as pursuits go, some folks seem to think that we should only give chase when lives are in danger, the problem is...we cant read minds. The normal response from a motorist when a police vehicle attempts to pull them over is to..pull over. People run for various reasons, some run because their license is suspended, some because they are drunk and others because they have murdered someone or robbed a bank, problem is, cops dont know why you are running. If we attempt to pull someone over and they flee...chances are they have done something, or are in the process of doing something, pretty bad. It sounds like this officer turned on a speeder and was attempting to make up the distance when he struck the sisters vehicle. The reason his siren wasnt on, was probably because he hadnt caught up to the vehicle close enough to stop it. Many PD's have a policy that when the siren and lights go on, a radio transmission goes along with it. If you cant read a plate, because you arent close enough to the rear of the vehicle, a radio transmission doesnt do you much good..I dont know if this guy, should have been convicted or not..the jury didnt seem to think so, and they saw/heard all the evidence. That said, I wish the Becker family peace and healing..

[Hepburn]

48. IMO, the DA charged him simply because of the up roar there would have been if...

...they had not charged him. A forgone conclusion that he was going to be found NG. But that left the government off the hook and looking good.

The above said ~~ he may not be criminally culpable, but he sure as shit was negligent.

[Vidar]

51. Another victory for our damned police state.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

52. Not surprising

NJ cops got off a few months ago after shooting a guy in the back 5 times at point blank range.