Man Ticketed After Being Struck by Police Cruiser

Police car hits man in wheelchair, Charlottesville, Virginia: Man Ticketed After Being Struck by Cruiser:
Well-known local artist and AIDS survivor Gerry Mitchell was knocked out of his wheelchair by a police cruiser earlier this month, and then received a ticket for jaywalking (rolling?).

Courteney Stuart explains in this weeks Hook that Mitchell was returning home from a shopping trip to Reids when he stopped to wait to cross West Main at 4th. When the light turned green, he progressed across the street. Halfway across, a police car hit him from behind, hurling him from his motorized wheelchair and into the street. The apologetic Albemarle County police officer Gregory Davis leapt from his car to help, as did a pedestrian. Bleeding from his limbs, Mitchell consented to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. A city officer came to visit him a few hours later, a ticket in hand.

The press only learned about this because a bystander contacted The Hook. Mitchell just wants an apology and, presumably, the ticket to be dropped. Obviously, Officer Davis didnt deliberately run into a man in a wheelchair, but the decision to ticket his victim quite literally added insult to injury. (Attorney Debbie Wyatt speculates that this was deliberate — as with the recent case of the officer nearly running down pedestrians on Water Street, in which he charged two of them with crimes, both of which they were acquitted of.)

Given the press attention to that other recent cruiser/pedestrian incident, the timing for this couldnt be worse. The victim likewise couldnt have been worse: its not just that hes a man in a wheelchair, but an enormously well-known, well-respected, well-spoken man with an unimpeachable reputation. The smartest thing for the county police to do in this case would be to get the city police tear up the ticket, apologize, and move on. Lets see how circuitous their path to that obvious solution proves to be.

Officers cell phone records now show that he was involved in excessive texting at the time of the accident. Read the rest here. http://www.readthehook.com/100416/crosswalk-bombshell-officer-was-texting-whe...

After seeking a public apology from the officer who struck him and from the Charlottesville City police, Mitchell filed an $850,000 suit alleging negligence, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. (While the City was dropped from the suit last spring, Davis and ticketing City officer Steve Grissom remain as defendants.)

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• police criminals

[Legendarywang]

Just a quick NOTE to the idiots who can't read. The Albemarle officer hit the man by mistake! The Charlottesville officer wrote the ticket! That's 2 different departments Officer Davis had nothing to do with the ticket. So yes he did hit him accidents happen. But he was not the one that wrote the ticket. Cops can been mean but I know for a fact this one is a good person.

[DanceRooster]

@Legendarywang Thats why he was texting while driving? Then he left the scene of an accident with injuries without calling it in? Yea hes a real winner.

[MrBbendiksen]

this is the video ive been waiting to post on facebook so i could end up on the fbi watch list.

[DanceRooster]

@MrBbendiksen If we all get on it they cant watch us all, and we will get the best of them, LOL

[179178]

Sorry, the guy was crossing the street, and it looked like at a crosswalk....and why did that cop have the radio up that loud?

[DanceRooster]

@179178 It was a cross walk, the guy was in a wheelchair, and phone record show the cop was texting at the time of the accident.

[DanceRooster]

@shawnga69 Its a cross walk, pedestrians have the right of way ,idiot. 

[rebelnomo]

And all you cops wonder why people hate you so much. That's why. Stuff like this happens daily across the country. What an a-hole.

[ilovemyeg2sir]

LOL

[cpe111]

He ran him over and then ticketed him - what a piece of shit.

[mhickory]

@Plsd2beme wow!, he ran him over?? what video is that in. i see him bump the guy and the guy falls out of the chair, but i wanna see the video of him running over the guy!!!!

[biffvonwrinkle]

was that pig listenin to lady lumps