By Brian Schrock, Daily American Online (Summit Township, Penn.)
CONFLUENCE, Penn. -- Elk Lick Township, Penn. Police Chief Sheridan Caton was helping a young police officer navigate the back roads of southern Somerset County and warning him to be on the lookout for deer just moments before a fiery two-car crash claimed the veteran police officer’s life.
Summit Township Police Chief Richard Good recounted his last night working alongside the popular police chief Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in Confluence.
“I always looked up to (Chief) Caton and a lot of the older officers,” Good said. “I (often) asked what I would do if I were (in his shoes).”
Good testified during a preliminary hearing for Warren E. Christopher, the 40-year-old Confluence man charged in connection with Caton’s death.
Police said Christopher was drunk, and possibly under the influence of drugs, when his car crashed into Caton’s police cruiser July 11 near the intersection of Listonburg and Lenhart Hill roads in Addison Township. Caton and Good were responding in separate cars to a non-emergency call for help from a Confluence police officer.
Christopher was ordered to stand trial Tuesday on charges that include homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle and driving under the influence of alcohol.
District Justice Sandra Stevanus dismissed additional charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, though the charges could be re-filed if blood tests come back positive, sources said.
Following the hearing, Christopher politely declined comment. His mother, Jane Smith of Greensboro, Greene County, offered the family’s only public response.
“My son’s innocent and when it goes to court (his name) will be cleared,” she said.
Good was one of three police officers who testified Tuesday on behalf of the commonwealth. The officers describing the events immediately before and after the car crash that claimed the 60-year-old police chief’s life.
About midnight on July 10, Caton and Good received a call for help from a Confluence police officer who was involved in a high-speed automobile chase, according to testimony. Christopher was not involved in the chase.
Good said he relied on Caton’s knowledge of local roads to cross the mountain between Salisbury and Confluence.
“I said, ‘I’ll follow you since you know where you’re going,’” Good testified, recounting a radio conversation between the two.
The Confluence police officer lost sight of the car and asked the other officers to proceed with caution. Good said he eventually lost radio contact with Caton, who had turned south towards Confluence.
Moments later, Good came upon two cars resting along opposite sides of Listonburg Road. One was a 1997 Chevy Monte Carlo, heavily damaged and on fire, Good testified. The other was Caton’s 2001 police cruiser.
“I lost a good friend and a mentor just like everybody else,” Good said following the preliminary hearing. “Unfortunately, I happened to be the one following him on the night it happened.”
According to Tuesday’s testimony, a handful of people heard screeching tires and the sound of two cars colliding on the night in question. But no one actually saw the accident.
By the time state police Trooper Donald Szarmach arrived on the scene, emergency workers were already working to free Christopher and his passenger, 31-year-old Mark Allen King, from the vehicle, according to testimony.
King was treated at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown and later released.
Christopher was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. Upon his release, he was transferred to SCI-Laurel Highlands, a state prison for the elderly and infirmed, because of his injuries.
His mother said he broke both ankles and his left arm, suffered a concussion and has three steel rods in his left leg, according to published reports. Christopher arrived at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing with the aid of a walker.
By examining road markings and debris at the scene, state police Cpl. Louis Veitz determined that Christopher’s car crossed into the northbound lane and struck the police cruiser. Veitz is an accident reconstructionist with the state police.
“It was virtually a head-on collision - almost a total overlap front end to front end,” he said.
Veitz said he was able to determine the speed of both vehicles using data from airbag control modules and his own calculations.
According to the data, Caton’s car was traveling 55 mph five seconds before impact and between 24 and 28 mph at the time of impact. Christopher’s car was traveling somewhere between 78 and 83 mph, he testified.
The impact of the crash forced the police cruiser backwards. The other car rotated in a counterclockwise direction before coming to rest along the west berm.
Bellefonte defense Attorney R. Bruce Manchester asked Veitz if it was possible Caton had just turned onto Listonburg Road from a dirt road that runs perpendicular to the roadway.
“Is it possible. Yes,” he said. “Do I think it was likely at 55 mph?”
Veitz later conceded that he did not know the exact path of either vehicle seconds before impact.
The hearing was attended by Christopher’s family and about a dozen of Caton’s relatives and friends, including members of the Fraternal Order of Police. Somerset Attorney Jon Barkman attended the hearing on behalf of Caton’s family, but did not take part.
“I represent the estate in potential civil actions against the defendant,” Barkman said.
Manchester chose not to give a closing statement, conceding that the charges would be bound over to the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas.
“The standard of proof is so low” at a preliminary hearing, he noted.
His client remains free on $10,000 bond. A trial date has not been set.