New Jersey Trooper Cleared of Charges in Cape May County Accident
As a Bergen County personal injury lawyer, I have followed the Robert Higbee case with interest, and have discussed it earlier on this blog. A jury has now cleared the New Jersey State trooper in charges resulting from a car accident in Cape May County in 2006. Higbee was accused of running a stop sign while engaged in a pursuit with his light and siren off, resulting in a fatal collision with a van.
On September 27th 2006, Higbee was on duty racing through an Upper Township neighborhood in pursuit of a speeding car. He was driving at over 79 mph when he allegedly ran a stop sign. His car crashed into a van containing Jacqueline and Christina Becker. The teenage girls suffered massive head injuries in the car accident, and died. Robert Higbee was charged with death by auto. Higbee denied ever having been seen the stop sign that he allegedly ran. He testified that his concentration was focused on the speeding car that was pursuing. If convicted, he could have faced five to ten years in prison.
The decision to file charges against Higbee had generated strong protests from the police union who have held that the accident was just that - an accident. According to David Jones, head of the main state police union, if Higbee had been found guilty, it would have negatively impacted law enforcement officers who had unintentional "bad outcomes” in the performance of their duties.
The verdict brought to an end an agonizing trial in which the deaths of the two girls were played out again and again. The girls' mother, Maria Caiafa has voiced her anguish at the decision. Caiafa - who had earlier this year settled for $2 million with the state - believes that the verdict sends law enforcement officers the wrong message – that it’s OK for innocent motorists and bystanders to pay when officers make a mistake.
