Deputy accused of ignoring crash is fired

Officials: Lawman drove away from site where teen girl died

A Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constable accused of driving away from a fatal crash without stopping to help has been fired as authorities continue to investigate.

A dashcam video shows that the deputy knew the crash occurred and drove away without taking action or reporting the wreck, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Wednesday during a news conference.

“The dashcam footage is pretty clear,” he said. “It seems the deputy constable was aware of what occurred.”

A 16-year-old girl died in the crash Saturday night, and another 16-year-old girl was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital in critical condition.

The deputy — who has not been identified — was on patrol when he saw a car speeding toward him on Queenslake Drive in the Cypress area, authorities said. He turned around to give chase, but before he could catch up to the vehicle, it had crashed into a concrete culvert. ‘Should have reported it’

The deputy — a 19-year law enforcement veteran who has worked at Precinct 4 for eight months — claimed to have lost view of the vehicle and said he didn’t see the subsequent accident because he looked down at his laptop, according to Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman, who launched an internal investigation and subsequently fired the deputy for policy violations.

Gonzalez, whose agency is investigating the crash, said the deputy should have stopped to check on the car’s occupants without driving away.

“He should have reported it via radio and immediately taken some kind of action,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t know why he didn’t stop, which is required. That’s something yet to be determined.”

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Wednesday that prosecutors will review all evidence and present it to a grand jury, who will determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

“This is a very unusual situation, where there is a pursuit and fatal crash not reported by an officer,” Ogg said. “Evidence is still being gathered.”

Prosecutors are working in coordination with the sheriff’s office and the constable’s office, Ogg said. Remark to supervisor

Herman said his office became aware something was awry late Monday after the deputy made a comment to a supervisor.

That prompted the supervisor to review the deputy’s in-car video.

“This is a deal we found and immediately contacted the sheriff ’s office, the DA’s office, the county attorney’s office, and gave it to them,” the constable said. “I fired the deputy because there were some things he could have done better that he didn’t do that night.”

The two girls were headed west in the 17600 block of Queenslake Drive just after 10 p.m. when the vehicle hit an unlit bend in the road and the driver lost control.

The driver apparently ran off the road and over-compensated, skidding back across the asphalt and slamming into a culvert. The car flipped over and landed upright.

The passenger, Lily Haugen, died at the scene, while the driver was flown to the hospital. Reached by phone, Haugen’s mother declined to comment.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to the crash after a passing motorist called 911. It wasn’t until Tuesday, when Precinct 4 contacted the sheriff ’s office, that investigators learned about the failed vehicle stop.

“We had no idea a constable had been involved,” said Jason Spencer, a sheriff ’s spokesman.