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2 Fla. deputies killed by cruiser during pursuit
Fla. deputies laid to rest
By Brian Haas
Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Sheriff Ric Bradshaw on Thursday blamed the deaths of two deputies south of Pahokee solely on the deputies themselves, saying they made a “mistake in judgment” by going in the roadway before they were struck by another deputy’s cruiser.
Deputies Jonathan Wallace and Donta Manuel died Nov. 28, 2007, because they didn’t follow the agency’s policies, failed to properly use spiked strips to stop a suspect and because Manuel may have been impaired by alcohol, according to a report Bradshaw released.
After a yearlong investigation that included the hiring of three outside analysts, the report said Deputy Gregorio Fernandez’s speed was not a factor in the crash when he struck his fellow deputies.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office also cleared Fernandez and others of negligence in the two deaths.
“These two deputies decided to enter that roadway and that was a judgment call that led to their demise,” Bradshaw said.
Wallace’s mother, the Rev. Patricia Wallace, was disappointed in the investigation and accused the Sheriff’s Office of a cover-up.
“I feel that it’s a total cover-up and that’s why it took them so long to produce,” she said. “I will find the channels to go through to get this case reopened. I’ll go anywhere I need to go.”
The accident that killed the two began with a 911 call just after 1 a.m. about a car break-in. Deputies saw the stolen Camry speeding north on State Road 715 and followed it.
The plan was to blow out the car’s tires with spiked strips and then sic a police dog on the driver.
Wallace, 23, and Manuel, 33, set up the spikes on the roadway, and the Camry ran over them.
Bradshaw said the traffic stop was “textbook” except for two things: Wallace and Manuel didn’t attach a lanyard to the spikes so they could easily yank them off the roadway, and they ran onto the road to prevent a tire blowout on the cruiser Fernandez was driving. The report said Fernandez was told to move in on the stolen car and he accelerated to about 111 mph to catch up.
Fernandez, a police dog handler, slammed into the two deputies and barreled into a canal.
Ernie Daley Jr., 20, the suspect they were after that day, was never charged in the deaths. Prosecutors dropped manslaughter charges against him because they said there was no official pursuit by legal standards. Daley was sentenced to 364 days in jail on grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing an officer and two misdemeanors.
Patricia Wallace disputed there was no pursuit that day.
“The driver that hit them was going over 100 mph,” she said. “When you are speeding like that and you declare that your officers were not in pursuit . . . why would he be going 106 mph?”
The Sheriff’s Office hired three experts in its investigation: one to evaluate whether Fernandez’s speed was a factor, one to assess whether Manuel was impaired after an autopsy revealed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.02, and another to make sure the investigation was sound.
Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminal justice professor who studies police use of force, said Fernandez couldn’t have avoided the deputies at any speed greater than 45 mph.
Dr. James Cholakis, a Venice toxicologist, wrote in his report that Manuel’s blood-alcohol level “could have been a contributing factor” in the accident because impairment tends to set in when blood-alcohol levels reach 0.02.
And an Illinois-based consultant specializing in accident reconstruction concluded the Sheriff’s Office investigation into the deputies’ death was unbiased.
Patricia Wallace said that even though authorities have largely wrapped up their investigations, hers has just begun.
“It’s not closed for me,” she said.
Bradshaw called his agency’s investigation “extensive.”
“Some people are in denial about things because they’re angry about the situation,” he said.
Copyright 2008 Sun-Sentinel