|
|
|
| NEWS > 22 September 2007 |
Other related articles:
Members of Lithuanian police f
Officers of Lithuania’s Criminal Police Office detained the commander and the deputy commander of Financial Crimes Investigation Department of the Kaunas City Police Commissariat. The detentions took place during operations in the second largest city of Lithuania on Wednesday.
According to Police Commissioner General Vytautas Grigaravicius, the officials detained are suspected in misusing their posts, and hence they were detained by a subdivision of Criminal Police Office that fights police corruption. Grigaravicius said that the activities of the officials were under observation for sev... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
The Patriot Ledger - Quincy,MA
22 September 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
Ex-cop blasts fatal crash repo
State Police ‘‘fabricated excuses’’ for an off-duty police officer involved in a fatal accident on the Southeast Expressway last year, a consultant’s report alleges.
Stephen R. Benanti, a retired State Police accident reconstruction specialist, called a State Police investigation into the accident deeply flawed and biased.
In his report, Benanti faulted State Police for not charging Boston police officer Thomas Griffin, whose vehicle struck and killed Michelle Vibert in her disabled vehicle at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 12. 2006. Vibert, of Weymouth, was a 29-year-old mother of two.
‘‘It appears the report was written in a manner as to protect Mr. Griffin and blame Michelle Vibert,’’ Benanti wrote.
Vibert’s father, Joseph S. Mogan, who hired Benanti to review the handling of the case, is asking Attorney General Martha Coakley to investigate further. Mogan, who has been critical of both State Police and Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office for their handling of the case, believes Griffin’s status as a police officer protected him from being charged.
State Police declined to comment, referring questions to the district attorney’s office, the investigating agency in the case. The DA’s office, which disclosed in January that Griffin would not be charged in the case, denies Mogan’s claims that the investigation was biased.
‘‘I have no reason to doubt the ethics or professionalism of any investigator assigned to the Massachusetts State Police,’’ DA spokesman Jake Wark said Friday.
AG spokesman Harry Pierre declined to comment.
In the moments leading up to the accident, Vibert’s Toyota Camry had broken down across from the Dorchester gas tank on a segment of the expressway that has no breakdown lane.
Mogan’s anger surfaced when he read a portion of the State Police report which says the crash ‘‘was precipitated by the illegal encroachment of the stopped Camry in the active right travel lane.’’
Benanti reports that some conclusions reached by state trooper Leo Paulding, an accident reconstruction specialist, were not based on factual evidence.
Paulding did not begin his investigation until approximately 7˝ hours after the crash, and at the scene it lasted only 40 minutes, Benanti reported.
An analysis to determine how visible Vibert’s car was to approaching traffic was not conducted until four months after the crash, which is ‘‘highly unusual,’’ the report says.
The speed of Griffin’s Ford Explorer was calculated at 62 mph based on the distance the two vehicles moved following impact, and Benanti concludes there is no physical evidence that Griffin took any evasive action to avoid the crash.
‘‘This would indicate inattention or some other cognitive problem quite possibly alcohol consumption,’’ his report states.
Griffin and two passengers were coming from a downtown Boston bar, but State Police said Griffin showed no evidence of being drunk, and he was not asked to take a breath test.
Mogan wants to know why investigators did not follow up on seemingly conflicting statements from Griffin’s two passengers, and why the state trooper dispatched to the accident got only a two-line statement from Griffin.
Passenger Christopher McCarron told police he had gone to Boston with Griffin to meet Kathleen Norton, the second passenger in the Explorer when it crashed. They met some friends and talked for about an hour and left. McCarron did not mention going to the Purple Shamrock Bar with Griffin and Norton.
McCarron recalled the crash, telling State Police, ‘‘Tom said something and slammed on the brakes. I looked up and didn’t see anything until all of a sudden we hit a car.’’
Norton told police she met Griffin and McCarron at the Purple Shamrock before the crash and that Griffin was not drinking.
Norton told police that she recalled seeing the Dorchester gas tank prior to the crash. ‘‘We were in the middle lane and switched to the right travel lane, I think,’’ she said.
She said Griffin yelled and that she was suddenly struck by an airbag.
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
