No charges for cop in fatal crash
A Boston patrolman will not be criminally charged for killing a woman while racing to help imperiled fellow officers last year, but Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley still wants Hub cops to put the brakes on speeding cruisers.
“I am deeply troubled by this case and conclude that it was an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy,” Conley said yesterday in a letter to Commissioner Edward Davis, exonerating officer Jesse Stots from his Nov. 10 fatal car crash with Ann-Marie McNally, 36, in South Boston.
The Boston Police Department’s Rules and Procedures Manual allows for an officer to exceed the speed limit in an emergency “if he exercises caution and due regard.” Even then, officers are expected to come to a complete stop at stop signs and red lights unless being waved through by another cop.
Due to conflicting witness accounts over who had the green light, prosecutors conceded they could not press motor vehicle homicide charges against Stots. The 39-year-old patrolman is still out on injury leave.
Investigators concluded that while rushing to help other officers struggling with a suspect armed with a knife, Stots drove through the intersection of D Street and West Broadway with lights flashing and his siren sounding at 51 mph - the area has a posted speed limit of 30 mph - and broadsided the driver’s side of McNally’s Saab without ever braking or easing off the gas pedal.
“Even if it were established that his signal was green, Stots’ failure to slow his vehicle as he entered the intersection represents a serious lapse in judgment,” said Conley, adding that McNally “bears no responsibility for the collision.”
Stots may yet face discipline by his department, which is also investigating.
Attorney David Eisenstadt, who represents McNally’s family, declined to comment yesterday on whether a civil suit is in the works because he’s out of town and, “I haven’t reviewed the report.”
Davis said in a statement that the department’s emergency driving procedures “are in keeping with state law.” But the commissioner is reaching out to nationally recognized experts “to review our policies and training to determine if we might incorporate elements beyond current requirements.”
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