Weisberg Law Blog

Charlottesville, Virginia Police Taking Heat After Hitting Wheelchaired Pedestrian

On November 5, 2007, Gerry Mitchell was struck by a car.  But Gerry Mitchell wasn’t just any victim and the car wasn’t just any car.  Mr. Mitchell is a long-time AIDS sufferer who was confined to a wheelchair and has suffered renal failure and arm injuries after the accident.  The car was an Albemarle County Police cruiser.

After striking the AIDS patient, the police officer and a bystander placed Mr. Mitchell back in his wheelchair and immediately called the EMTs.

Anyone want to guess what happened next?  The officer apologized and Mr. Mitchell got treated for his injuries?  The police department conducted an investigation into the accident?  Wrong.

First, while he waited in the University of Virginia Hospital emergency room, another Charlottesville officer walked in and served Mr. Mitchell with a jaywalking ticket.

Then, the police issued this memo, which defends the decision to ticket Mitchell and states that any attempts to investigate the accident would be fruitless because there were not witnesses.

Not so, says Ben Gathright, the pedestrian who helped officers place Mitchell back in his wheelchair.  Not only does Gathright claim to have witnessed the entire accident, but he also says that he wrote down his contact information and gave it to Mitchell – a card which the police officers then took from Mitchell (Gathright then wrote it down again).  No formal statement was ever taken from Gathright, who says he lingered at the scene so long that the police eventually asked him why he was still there.

Gathright claims to have made repeated attempts to speak with police about what he saw and claims he has been repeatedly denied this privilege.  Maybe The Hook’s article will change that.

Labels: