By Ramon Antonio Vargas
The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy Donald Clogher was recuperating Thursday after being dragged across a parking lot while clinging to a fleeing vehicle -- for the second time in his career.
Clogher, a narcotics agent, helped other narcotics officers stop a pickup truck Wednesday about 11:45 p.m. in the 3200 block of Jefferson Highway in Old Jefferson. They suspected that two men inside had taken part in a drug deal moments before, the Sheriff’s Office said.
But as officers approached the truck from both sides, the driver sped off. The truck hit Clogher on the way out of the parking lot and dragged him several feet, said Col. John Fortunato, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. Another officer fired a gunshot at the truck, but the driver escaped.
Clogher, 40, was taken to Ochsner Medical Center for treatment and released early Thursday, Fortunato said.
Officers found the pickup in the 2800 block of Westbury Street, about six blocks from the crime scene, Fortunato said. The suspects were gone.
Clogher survived a similar episode a decade ago.
On Aug. 29, 1998, while he was working as a security guard for Dillard’s at Oakwood Center in Terrytown, employees reported a shoplifter. Clogher ran outside and saw two men climbing into a station wagon. One tossed a bag of clothes into the back seat.
Clogher reached into the vehicle to turn off the ignition. His arm became stuck as the driver began to take off, according to his testimony later in court.
The driver and Clogher wrestled over the officer’s gun, and Clogher squeezed off several shots. A bullet struck the driver in the leg, but he kept driving.
The car reached speeds of more than 50 mph and dragged Clogher about 1,000 feet, melting the heel of his shoe, before he let go.
When he did, he skidded on his side, cutting and bruising his shoulder, feet, ankles, buttocks and side. His police radio was smashed.
Back at home, his wife at the time was pregnant with their son, now 10, according to a relative not wishing to be named.
The driver, Christopher Percy, surrendered two days later. A jury convicted him of attempted first-degree murder in 2000.
In 1995, Clogher won a lifesaving medal as a member of the New Orleans Police Department for jumping into Bayou St. John and rescuing a person who had driven a car into the water. A passenger drowned.
Clogher also is the father of a 13-year-old daughter, the relative said.
“He’s a great cop,” the relative said, adding that despite the danger, “Donnie loves his job.”
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company