The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Probe heats up in trooper crash
SOUTHBURY — A number of “people” likely face disciplinary measures following the crash that injured a woman and her daughter after a state police party at an Oxford brewery, a law enforcement spokesman said Friday.
Investigators are now looking at time cards to determine if any of the troopers in attendance at the retirement party were on duty and responded to the accident, said Brian Foley of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
“Based on the investigation to this point, it is a likelihood that people will be facing discipline,” Foley said, adding that video from the Black Hog Brewery is part of the probe. The brewery had cameras inside and outside, overlooking the parking lot.
“We absolutely looked to obtain that video early in the investigation,” Foley said.
Sgt. John McDonald — a 37yearold state trooper with the major crimes division — injured a Middlebury woman and her 19yearold daughter after state police say he ran a stop sign on Sept. 25 and struck their 2016 Nissan Altima.
McDonald has yet to be charged with running a stop sign — or anything else — because “everything is still under investigation,” state police said Friday.
The crash happened at the intersection of Strongtown Road and a WaterburyOxford Airport access road around 7:30 p.m., state police said.
McDonald was driving a state police vehicle, a 2013 Chevy Impala, at the time, police said.
A lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Waterbury by the family of the crash victims alleges McDonald had been drinking at the Black Hog Brewery shortly before the accident.
It is unclear whether state police already have surveillance footage from the brewery or if they are in process of obtaining a search warrant for it.
State police released body camera video Thursday showing the aftermath of the trooperinvolved crash.
The video is from the body camera of Sgt. Shawn Prusinowski, who responded to the accident, according to state police.
Prusinowski arrived at the scene and then went back to his cruiser to put on his body camera and activate it after realizing the crash involved another state trooper, said Trooper Tyler Weerden.
Prusinowski can be heard on the video telling his supervisor, Lt. Christopher Bartolotta, that McDonald “didn’t stop at the stop sign and (kept) going, pushing (the Nissan) into the woods.”
The video footage also shows Bartolotta telling Prusinowski to have officers “document the scene like they normally would a regular crash.”
“Document the crap out of everything,” Bartolotta says on the video. “Nothing gets changed ... as the evidence presents itself to us, that’s what we’re going to work with ... I’m not getting anybody jammed up for trying to do something they shouldn’t be doing.”
After shrugging his shoulders and a few more words, Bartolotta says to Prusinowski: “It’s unfortunate. I’m more pissed that he’s put us in this situation.”
Even with the release of the body camera footage, questions remain about whether state police protocol was properly applied. For starters, McDonald was not given a any performance tests at the scene.
In the state police guide for traffic accident investigations under the heading of Investigative Procedures troopers are advised, as a general rule, to issue traffic summons promptly.
One exception to the rule is when an accident investigation “requires more time for further investigation as when obtaining a search and arrest warrant in a DWI case involving blood alcohol findings as a result of treatment pursuant to (state drinking and driving laws).”
In this case, the written state police accident report makes no mention of alcohol.