"Officer charged in hit-run fatality; Was text messaging at time, police say" by Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent | July 17, 2008
TAUNTON - A state employee from Stoughton was distracted by his cellphone when he struck and killed a man with his car last weekend, in the latest fatal accident in Massachusetts involving text messaging, authorities say.
And a man is DEAD because this jerk was fumbling with some numbers?
Michael L. Faria, whom Easton police identified as a police officer for the Department of Mental Health, pleaded not guilty in Taunton District Court yesterday to charges stemming from an accident that killed John J. McCarthy, 58, of Brockton, as McCarthy walked on Washington Street in Easton early Saturday.
Judge Kevan Cunningham ordered Faria, 33, held on $50,000 cash bail on charges of homicide by motor vehicle, operating to endanger, and leaving the scene of an accident.
The accident followed two deaths believed to have been related, at least in part, to text messaging. In December, 13-year-old Earman Machado was struck and killed in Taunton by a driver who later told police he was trying to send a text message. In October, 17-year-old Amanda Martin of Southbridge was killed when she drove off the road after receiving a text message.
McCarthy, a Vietnam War veteran and father of two who often walked in the early morning for exercise, was believed to have been struck about 4:15 a.m. Saturday, said Bristol Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lennon. Outside court after yesterday's hearing, the McCarthy family's lawyer, Thomas J. Minichiello, said a Good Samaritan called police at 4:41 a.m. Lennon said McCarthy was alive but bleeding heavily from his head, arms, and legs when police arrived.
McCarthy later died at Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.
Reading from the police report yesterday, Lennon said that, based on a tip, police went to the home of an Easton man, who told them that Faria had been drinking earlier that evening and had been at his house until just before the accident. The man said Faria called him sometime after he left and said he had been looking down at his phone, text messaging, when he thought he hit someone, Lennon said.
Drinking again! That never helps anyone, folks!
When the man asked what happened, Faria responded, "I don't know; I didn't go back," according to the police report.
"It is quite possible that if the defendant had contacted 911 at the time of the crash, the victim would be alive today," Lennon said.
Faria, Lennon said, went to Maine after the accident. An anonymous caller told police Monday that her daughter was at the Easton home where Faria had been and overheard a phone conversation about the accident. Police tried to call Faria later that day, Lennon said, but he did not return their calls. He also made some repairs to his sport utility vehicle, which was damaged in the accident, Lennon said.
Faria's lawyer, John LaChance of Framingham, said his client had no obligation to return phone calls until a warrant was issued on Tuesday, when he turned himself in.
Faria "could have crossed over to Canada, gone anywhere he wanted to," said LaChance.
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Anybody check this guy's chest for a heart -- because I don't think he has one!!!
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley criticized the judgment of a Boston police officer yesterday, but said there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against him for causing a car crash that killed a 36-year-old South Boston woman last year.
The investigation of the Nov. 10, 2007, crash by State Police assigned to Conley's office found that Officer Jesse Stots was responding to an officer-in-trouble call and was driving 51 miles per hour when he turned into the intersection of D Street and West Broadway, where he broadsided Ann-Marie McNally's Saab as she tried to maneuver out of the marked cruiser's path. The speed limit in that area was 30 miles per hour.
Stots told investigators the light was green when he turned onto West Broadway, but an eyewitness contradicted the officer and told investigators McNally had the green light at the time of the crash.
Conley said that even if the light was red, the courts have ruled that a police officer who runs a red light may not have acted negligently. And, he said, Stots was responding to a legitimate public safety emergency.
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Yeah, to hell with the INNOCENT PUBLIC!!!
