We previously followed the case of former Officer Donnie Breeden, 39, who was accused of killing David Hall in a hit and run and then telling friends “I’m a cop. I can’t go to jail.” Well, he will but only for one to two years.
The fifteen-year veteran of the Crafton, Pa. police force was only arrested after a friend implicated him in a 2007 hit and run — after which Breeden and his friends repaired his car and covered up his involvement.
Breeden, therefore, not only killed a man, but fled the scene and orchestrated a cover-up. He was also accused of drinking before the accident. That makes the sentence pretty light.
The witness said that Breeden and his friends had been drinking and Hall was hit by Breeden and then two other vehicles. Investigators say that Breeden returned to the scene of the crash and asked witnesses if they saw anything.
The witness states that Breeden and his friends (who were following in other cars) fled the scene and agreed that Breeden would not turn himself in. He reportedly told them: “I’m a cop I can’t go to jail. If I go to jail I will kill myself. I’m getting out of here. No one knows I did this so I am getting out of here.”
The friends met up with Breeden two days later and repaired his car to conceal the accident. They allegedly fixed Breeden’s broken windshield, replaced a headlight, repaired a side mirror, “and attached a bug reflector to the front of the hood to help hide the dent to the right corner.”
What is curious is that there are no reported charges against the friends who helped cover up a crime. The friends actively worked to get rid of the evidence of the crash to avoid detention.
This was not the first case of notoriety for Breeden, who in 1996 was dragged by a driver down the street when his arm got caught in a stolen car when he tried to force the gear into park.
Breeden ultimately pleaded guilty in this case. The light sentence was part of a plea deal struck with prosecutors, though Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski could presumably have refused to accept it. Most states allow judges to turn down deals. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident and no contest to involuntary manslaughter.
Hall was mentally disabled and was waiting for a bus home when he crossed the street and was struck.
His body was so mangled that the coroner told his family not to come down, but instead to remember him as he was.
Defense attorney Bill Difenderfer who insisted that “a young man came out from a blindspot (into the street) and then my client made the dumbest decision of his life.”
Source: Pittsburgh
Big rocks for sale.
Flame ready.
$1
BYOV
(Bring Your Own Vulture)
Well, I can say thank you again. I guess I still have a lot to learn.
Sisyphus is a great “story” and I too missed out by not learning of his mythological message until much later in life.
FF LEO,
Thank you for your perspective, I take your position on this as “The Word.” As you have stated it is rare when they do not cover for the other when a crime has been committed, where otherwise other individuals would be charged with a crime.
Also, I learned a new word today. So my day is almost complete.
The word sisyphean means, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, “endless and unavailing, as labor or a task.”
I will also have to read up on the classics regarding Sisyphus the Greek King.
I can confirm firsthand, from personal experience; covering-up for other LEOs is common practice within Federal governmental agency LE—as well—and that most times guilty LEOs and their LE colleagues/collaborators/partners-in-crime are fully successful with their surreptitiousness and avoidances of justice. Then again, when the attempted cover-ups are unsuccessful (rarely so) the penalties for malfeasance in office are similarly as contemptible as exemplified by this light sentence meted to the nonfederal, city LEO Breedan.
Furthermore, with Federal LEOs, a FOIA will not allow a citizen or colleague to know how severe the punishment was for violations of law because that sensitive information *lies* hidden within LEOs’ personnel files—sometimes to be expunged within as little as a year’s time—while the officers continue to “enforce” the very laws they violated. (That is, most cases that do not go to trial because common folks do not have the funds to sue a governmental employee and/or do not want to wait 5+ years for final adjudication of a lawsuit, which nowadays is a timely and costly crapshoot given the corruptness in—and the politicizing of—our judiciary). Bear in mind, even if judges know and acknowledge that governmental employees lied, they are still granted deference. That outright collegial respect/submission given to government by judges—often despite the facts—is a long, mostly insurmountable Sisyphean incline/hurdle.
Often, the most unfortunate outcome—besides the deaths that sometimes occur, as in this case—is that any whistleblowers’ careers, reputations, and lives are ruined instead of them being honored for having exposed abject corruption and severe violations of Codes of Conduct, Ethical Standards, and most importantly—infringements of Oaths of Office.
The guy looks like a fascist.
Methinks that Human Resources within police departments are malfunctioning.
AY,
“You tell me where justice was served.”
I can’t because it wasn’t … the rot is really deeply embedded in the system isn’t it!(?)
Blouise,
It would be nice, but most of the Judges presently on the Courts today are former Prosecutors in someway…..There is that code as well…I know of a Prosecutor that purposeful altered documents given to the defense, the Defendant was convicted and sentenced to life for a Murder that he did not do.
Another person arrested on another Murder admitted to do it. The State Police investigated and found that the convicted person did not do it and as a matter of fact the original record showed that the initial investigation that the convicted person could not have committed the murder based upon his experience.
The Investigator on the witness stand, when the old conviction was reopened stated that the Prosecutor chastised him for stating his opinion and when he wanted it he would ask for it….. The Attorney Board found that Prosecutor somehow or another just miscopied the defense copy and no further action was necessary. Well he also happened to be a former cop (the Prosecutor). You tell me where truth and justice are in this…well the formerly convicted person settled for a number of millions of dollars….
You tell me where justice was served.
“What is curious is that there are no reported charges against the friends who helped cover up a crime. The friends actively worked to get rid of the evidence of the crash to avoid detention.” (JT)
I find it very difficult to understand how these “friends” weren’t charged with anything … but I had that same difficulty in the case of the NYPD officer that was discussed earlier this week … I’m wondering if we should start charging prosecutors with “aiding and abetting” ….
Well, at least he is likely to have a bad time during his short stay in jail.
Also, should we start on pool on his mug shot titled: Busted lip, cold sore, or the herp?
Sort of gives lie to the current National Ad Campaign flooding TV and Radio about how drunk drivers will be caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I think they should qualify that, in small print of course, to “this applies only to average citizens and not those who represent the Law Enforcement establishment.”
He [Breeden] reportedly told them: “I’m a cop I can’t go to jail. If I go to jail I will kill myself.”
Promises, promises.
Days, not ‘daty.’ Fingers not cooperative this AM.
AY, agree that situation was a conundrum of sorts for Mr. McCargo. At least it was not permanent, just for 179 daty.
On a slightly related theme, did you know that Bobby Delaughter, the former assistant district attorney and later Circuit Court Judge is now in Federal prison? If the name sounds familiar, Bobby was played by Alex Baldwin in the movie Ghosts of Mississippi. That was the story of the belated prosecution of Byron DeLay Beckwith for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, MS. On top of Bobby’s misdeeds, his former boss, District Attorney Ed Peters (played by Craig T. Nelson in the movie) suddenly relinquished his law license forever and paid a hefty six figure fine. But there is an immunity deal and the DOJ is keeping the Peters agreement under close wraps. IMHO, Ed threw Bobby under the bus to save his own ass from becoming a guest at Club Fed. But then I am the suspicious type.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6053374-504083.html
http://www.mslitigationreview.com/tags/ed-peters/
OS,
That is the problem with the Judicial system no semblance of balance unless you consider 5 pounds of lead and 5 pounds of chicken feathers equal in mass/volume. Sometimes one is able to get the chicken feathers wet enough to weigh more than the mass/volume limit but rarely.
Headline exactly as it appears….on line….
Panel Supends License of Ex-Kilpatrick Attorney
Updated: Friday, 10 Sep 2010, 9:03 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 10 Sep 2010, 9:03 PM EDT
DETROIT (AP) – An attorney representing ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick during a 2007 police whistle-blowers’ lawsuit trial and settlement has had his law license suspended.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/panel-supends-license-of-ex-kilpatrick-attorney-20100910-wpms-apx
To be honest with you, I think he was between a rock and a hard place. Do you rat out your client? Do you have a duty to not reveal any confidential information your client divulges to you?
AY, I missed the Detroit story, but will look it up. Sounds juicy.
As for officers as witnesses, some of the most creative lying I have ever seen in my life was by a police chief during a murder trial. He made stuff up as he went along, but was so experienced as a witness the defense attorney could not shake his story and the judge (a former prosecutor, naturally) kept telling defense counsel to move it along because the question had been asked and answered. Except that it had not.
OS,
Most Cops do not have a conscience until they are on the witness stand.
Did you see that the ex-mayHoe of Detroit’s attorney lost his license because of the lies concealed during “his” trial.
AY, from the way the story reads, guilt or remorse is not one of former officer Breeden’s problems. Nor his friends, apparently. Unlike most of us, they do not seem to be afflicted with a conscience.
This sounds like a bad control freak cop who was spiraling out of control. Now exactly why weren’t the other officers charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting after the fact…etc….
Man to live with this guilt must have caused some very stressful pysch-ache….
The way this country is going it IS amazing that they are even going to send him to jail.
Usually they can turn anything around on the victim and make it their fault.