Deputy on trial over reckless driving charge
Man was severely injured when sheriff’s cruiser hit Smart car
Brandon Hegele weaved his Ford sedan in and out of midday traffic on busy Southern Boulevard, reaching 104 mph while changing lanes nine times before a violent crash that seriously hurt another driver.
Hegele wasn’t just any motorist in a big hurry — he was an on-duty deputy behind the wheel of a marked Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s cruiser on May 27, 2016.
But he was driving without using his lights and sirens, while allegedly disregarding the commands of two supervisors to “hang back” and not pursue a suspect Toyota with Kentucky plates.
The 13-year veteran deputy faces a trial set to begin
Monday.
Crash victim Harry Deshommes, 61, now resides in an assisted-living facility and is unable to attend the trial, says his younger sister, Gina Desrouleaux. He spent a few months in the hospital after the cruiser crashed into the rear of his Smart car.
Desrouleaux said her brother went from the hospital to a rehabilitation center until April, learning how to talk, walk with a cane, and eat again after suffering a traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, broken back, broken left arm, broken ribs, broken pelvis, and an injury that required surgery to remove his spleen.
“Harry was like Humpty Dumpty,” Desrouleaux told the Sun Sentinel, referring to the nursery rhyme egg man that falls and crashes into bits. “He was broken. He suffered as anyone would have, and his life will never be the same.”
Hegele, 34, is charged with reckless driving causing serious bodily injury. It’s a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Seeking justice
Deshommes doesn’t remember the crash or where he was headed before it happened, said his sister. She and her husband had lived with Deshommes in their Royal Palm Beach home until the crash.
Deshommes, a native of Haiti who has lived in South Florida since about 2000, had been healthy and was looking for work after a previous job as a Macy’s clerk, Desrouleaux said.
“I just want justice to be served,” she said, calling Hegele “a police officer who has total disregard for the law.”
Desrouleaux says she was upset to learn it wasn’t the first crash that had gotten the deputy into trouble at work.
Hegele was placed on unpaid leave four months after the crash, the latest in a series of disciplinary actions over his conduct behind the wheel, documents show.
That includes a suspension and a reprimand over two prior rear-end car crashes, including one that left another driver with back and shoulder injuries, according to Internal Affairs records provided by the Sheriff ’s Office. In 2013, he signed a “last chance agreement” to keep his job after a captain recommended firing him for failing to maintain his service weapon. Hegele was then suspended for three weeks.
But all of that background, as well as the sheriff ’s official policy on vehicle pursuits, will not be shared with the jury. Under Florida law, evidence of a policy violation can’t be used to help prove that a crime occurred.
So the only focus of the trial is “about what happened during that incident,” Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer said during an Aug. 15 hearing.
However, over the defense’s objections, the jurors will hear a recording of the commands from Hegele’s bosses. And the judge also blocked Hegele’s lawyer from sharing with the jury that other deputies around Wellington also were speeding to locate the suspect car.
Violent crash
The episode began when deputies were advised to look for a car that had been involved in a violent felony under investigation by Village of Palm Springs police.
Deputies began to follow the car, but a supervisor advised to “break it off” and stop the pursuit. Two more commands to “hang back” followed, court records show.
But Hegele, driving on Southern Boulevard, continued to look for the Toyota after it had been spotted in the area.
According to an arrest report, Hegele drove more than twice the posted 50 mph speed limit for 2 1⁄2 miles, repeatedly changing lanes to pass other vehicles heading west. He used his lights and sirens only to go through red traffic signals.
At 3:13 p.m., Deshommes made a U-turn onto Southern to head west and started to change lanes.
Less than 1,000 feet away, Hegele’s cruiser was moving at an estimated 152 feet per second. The deputy slammed on the brakes and steered to the right but couldn’t avoid the collision, an investigator’s report said.
The Smart car flipped before landing upright, east of Cleary Road. Deshommes required months of medical treatment, while Hegele had minor injuries from the impact.
The prosecution
Assistant State Attorney Marci Rex is planning to show the jury a dashcam video of the crash, which she says was caused by Hegele’s “willful or wanton” disregard for the safety of others on the road.
“There was no need to be driving 104 miles per hour,” Rex said at the recent hearing.
“Obviously police officers can speed … this was not one of those circumstances,” she explained. “He was not supposed to be chasing anybody. He was not engaged in an active pursuit. He was choosing to disregard the commands, to go well over the speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, not using lights and sirens … that is why he is being charged with a crime.”
Defense attorney Scott Richardson argued the commands from the supervisors shouldn’t be allowed in the trial. He said the commands are essentially “verbal pronouncements” of the written policy on pursuing suspects, which is not permitted as evidence.
The jurors “aren’t naïve” and will infer that Hegele did something wrong when they hear the directives, Richardson said.
But the judge said she doesn’t believe the jury would make a “logical leap” that the commands are based on a policy.
Schosberg Feuer delayed ruling on a request by the prosecutor to prevent the jury from hearing Hegele, after the crash, asking about the other driver’s condition.
Rex says the remark showing possible remorse serves only to elicit sympathy for the deputy.
“It’s not an expression of remorse,” Richardson responded. “It’s an expression of concern.”