PRE-CRASH CAPE PURSUIT PROBED
Mashpee cops look into whether policy violated
Mashpee police are investigating their officers’ decision to continue a pursuit that led up to the head-on crash that killed three people on Cape
Cod Saturday, including a young Marine combat vet who had just become a new father.
“The focus of the internal investigation is to determine if the actions of the police officers involved in the pursuit are consistent with the Mashpee Police Department’s policy,” Chief Scott Carline said in a statement.
The acknowledgement of an internal probe came after days of refusing to answer Herald questions about the actions of a patrolman and supervisor, and the department’s pursuit policy.
The policy, released yesterday, states that Mashpee police should only chase suspects when the need to catch them “outweighs the risk created by the pursuit.”
Officers should consider the circumstances in each situation and use “common sense,” the policy states, weighing whether the risk to the public posed by a suspect remaining at large is greater than the risk of a highspeed pursuit.
It also states that police should break off when a pursuit over “a civil infraction, misdemeanor or non-violent felony enters into a densely populated area or a heavily congested roadway.”
In audio of the chase that took place just after midnight Saturday, the pursuing officer states the suspect was driving erratically and had blown through stop signs. He was cleared to continue. The officer, who was on Route 28, reported, “My speed is 65, now passing vehicles on route 28,” shortly before he reported, “Vehicle has left the roadway and has crashed.” Route 28 between Mashpee and Hyannis is posted for maximum speeds of 45 to 50 mph.
The crash killed Mickey Rivera, 22, of Fall River, the driver who was being pursued, and the driver of the SUV Rivera hit headon, Kevin Quinn, a Marine combat veteran and father of a newborn daughter. A passenger in Rivera’s sedan, Jocelyn Goyette, 24, reportedly died Monday.
After acknowledging the investigation of the officers’ actions, Carline declined to comment on the specifics of the incident.
“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on an active internal investigation until all the facts have been gathered regarding this incident,” Carline said.
Rivera was free thanks to a judge’s decision to cut his bail from $35,000 to $1,000 in an armed robbery case last September — and the family of the slain new dad Quinn has slammed the courts.
Rivera, who was facing trial on charges of armed assault and a slew of armed robbery charges, posted the $1,000 bail last September and was freed after Judge Thomas McGuire allowed a motion for the dramatic reduction over the objections of prosecutors — reversing a prior judge’s decision to maintain high bail, according to the Bristol District Attorney’s office. But despite his arrest on drunken driving charges in Hyannis in June, he was allowed to remain free.
“Clearly this is a case, given the nature of the underlying charges, that should have been brought to the attention of our office,” spokesman Gregg Miliote of the Bristol DA’s office said.