By Shira Moolten
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Seven West Palm Beach police officers are facing criminal charges after a high-speed chase in Boynton Beach last year that killed a mother and her daughter, the State Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The officers were arrested Wednesday night and had their first appearances in court Thursday morning. Three of them, Austin B. Danielovich, Pierre F. Etienne, and Christopher C. Rekdahl, each face two counts of leaving the scene of a crash involving death, a first-degree felony, as well as one count of official misconduct, a third-degree felony. Their bonds were set at $125,000. They are ordered to have no contact with the victims’ family or each other.
The other four officers, Michael E. Borgen, William L. Loayza, Brandan C. Stedfelt, and Darien J. Thomas, each face one count of official misconduct. Their bonds were set at $5,000.
On the night of July 30, Neoni Copeland was speeding away from police officers on North Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach when he crashed into a Toyota that was trying to make a left turn, according to police. Copeland had minor injuries and was arrested. The mother and daughter in the Corolla, Marcia Pochette, 57, and Jenice Woods, 27, were killed. Woods was pregnant and had just announced it to her family.
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The seven officers pursuing Copeland left the scene of the crash without checking on the occupants of the Toyota, writing a police report, notifying emergency services or talking to Boynton Beach Police. One of the officers drove directly around the site of the crash on his way back to West Palm Beach, according to a probable cause affidavit.
“The police officers’ actions are a disturbing betrayal of the public trust,” State Attorney Alexcia Cox said in a statement. “Law enforcement officers have a duty to the public they swore to uphold. No one is above the law, and this office will pursue justice wherever the facts and the law lead.”
When Boynton Beach Police arrived that night, the women were still trapped in the Toyota, according to a probable cause affidavit from the State Attorney’s Office. Everyone else was gone.
Copeland had fled the scene. When Boynton Beach officers caught up to him about 10 minutes later and arrested him, he said he had fled out of fear because he was being pursued by West Palm Beach officers.
“No WPB officers contacted the BB police,” the affidavit states. “No WPB officers remained at the crash scene where two people died.”
It wasn’t until almost 3 hours after the crash that the ranking officer on duty heard about it when a Boynton Beach captain called him, according to the affidavit. No officers had told a supervisor about their involvement.
Danielovich and Stedfelt were bicycle officers, while Borgen, Etienne, Loayza, Rekdahl and Thomas were part of the police department’s GHOST (Gang and Habitual Offender Suppression Team) unit. The night of the chase, the five GHOST officers had been arresting a robbery suspect, according to the affidavit. They told another officer, Officer Maroto, to look out for a gray Kia, the one Copeland had been driving, because they wanted to interview the driver about something unrelated to the robbery.
Maroto spotted Copeland and activated his emergency lights behind him. Copeland fled, and Maroto did not chase him “because it would violate policy to continue it for nothing more than a traffic offense or routine interview,” he said in a sworn statement. He announced what had happened over radio that night.
But despite the radio transmission, multiple officers witnessed other West Palm Beach police cars following the Kia, according to the affidavit. A marked Ford SUV driven by Danielovich was following him as well as two unmarked cars, a Dodge SUV and a Dodge pickup truck. Stedfelt was a passenger in Danielovich’s car. Etienne drove the Dodge SUV with Loayza in tow. Rekdahl was in the Dodge pickup with Thomas and Borgen.
None of the officers notified dispatch about the pursuit, a “clear violation of department policy,” the affidavit states. Nor did they tell Florida Highway Patrol or the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, or Boynton Beach Police when the pursuit entered their jurisdictions.
Investigators with the State Attorney’s Office used data from the officers’ cellphones and the cars to track their movements and place them near Copeland throughout the pursuit and right near the scene of the crash. At one point, the Ford reached a speed of 119 mph, according to data retrieved from the car.
After the crash, Copeland fled on foot into a neighborhood. Yet, despite the extensive pursuit leading up to that moment, none of the West Palm Beach police officers actually tried to chase or capture him, according to the affidavit.
Instead, surveillance footage showed them turning around and driving home. The car driven by Rekdahl went directly around the wreckage of Copeland’s Kia, the crashed Toyota and the debris, which blocked the road.
All seven officers returned back to West Palm Beach as if the crash had never happened. None of them had their body cameras activated, a violation of department policy. When they returned to West Palm Beach , none of the officers wrote a police report.
“The officers left from the scene of a vehicle crash in which they were integrally involved, failing to attempt to render aid or notify emergency medical personnel,” the affidavit states. “The two wrecked vehicles and a considerable amount of crash debris were just a few feet away.”
Ten minutes after the crash, Danielovich and Stedfeldt conducted a traffic stop on a driver on Interstate 95 . They logged that stop, and Stedfelt turned on his body camera.
The West Palm Beach Fraternal Order of Police union defended the officers in a statement Wednesday night while recognizing the tragedy, saying, “We recognize the profound pain this tragedy has caused and join the community in mourning this devastating loss. We also stand in support of our members who have been arrested in connection with this incident. These officers are entitled to the full protections of due process. We respectfully ask the public to allow the legal system to do its work fairly and without presumption.”
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