Officer faces 2 suits over crashes

APD says accidents weren’t preventable

An Albuquerque police officer who has been in at least five on-duty wrecks in the past three years is facing lawsuits in connection with two of the crashes.

Officer Patrick Casias was sued in March and then again last week in connection to two wrecks. Both lawsuits were filed in state District Court and are seeking damages.

Albuquerque police said Casias could not have prevented either accident and point out the many hours officers spend in their cars each day.

The lawsuits come at a time when the Albuquerque Police Department is facing scrutiny over the number of crashes its officers are involved in compared with other law enforcement agencies.

In April, Albuquerque police officer Johnathan McDonnell, who previously had been involved in five “preventable” car wrecks, crashed into a family’s SUV, killing a 6-yearold boy.

Albuquerque’s Police Oversight Board has asked for a presentation from APD about the department’s

crash statistics compared with other departments and how police track and retrain officers who are in multiple crashes. The board received a limited presentation earlier this month that didn’t answer many of the board’s questions. Police officials have said they are continuing to work to compile crash data from other police departments.

One of the lawsuits against Casias, brought by Belinda Labrado of El Paso, accused Casias of carelessness and negligence in a three-car crash. The lawsuit said the crash occurred on April 9, 2016, but police reports say the crash happened a year earlier, on April 9, 2015. Those reports show Casias was driving near Zuni and Alvarado SE when he rear-ended a vehicle while looking for a stolen car. The vehicle Casias crashed into then rear-ended another vehicle. Labrado was a passenger in one of the vehicles.

Labrado was injured in the crash, according to the lawsuit.

Another lawsuit, filed in state District Court last week, was in connection to a July 2016 car wreck.

Lidia Leslie said she was turning south on Wyoming from Interstate 40 when Casias, who was responding to a call about a stolen vehicle, crashed into her driver’s-side door.

The lawsuit alleges that Casias had on his lights but no siren.

“Defendant Casias was not acting with reasonable care when he was driving his police cruiser at a high rate of speed on an overpass with restricted views without activating his cruiser’s siren to act as a warning,” the suit says.

Leslie was taken to a hospital with several injuries, including a bruised kidney, said Vincent Ward, her attorney.

Celina Espinoza, a police spokeswoman, said both the crashes that led to the recent lawsuits were found to be “non-preventable” by the city’s Safety Review Board, and Casias wasn’t disciplined.

“Officers’ vehicles are their offices. They respond to the city’s most serious situations and are trained to do so,” Espinoza said. “We are committed to thoroughly studying the data and working transparently, not only with the (Civilian Police Oversight Agency) and the (Police Oversight Board), but also with our community to glean from it trends and possible improvements.”

Ward said police reports, which he provided to the Journal, show that in addition to the two wrecks that Casias was recently sued over, he was in three additional onduty wrecks dating back to August 2014:

In August 2014, he hit a parking lot sign in an accident that didn’t cause damage.

In April 2015, he rear-ended another car at Central and Louisiana while he was looking at his computer to check on a call for service. A police report indicates that driver inattention and following too closely were contributing factors in the crash. No one was injured in the wreck.

In September 2016, he parked his car at Zuni and Pennsylvania and got into a foot chase, and his car then rolled back into a pole.

Ward said such a driving record raises the possibility that he is a problem driver.

“It makes you wonder what the heck’s going on (at APD).”