September 22, 2007
Ex-cop blasts fatal crash report; Says police made up excuses for off-duty cop who was driving
By ROBERT SEARS, The Patriot Ledger
State Police ‘‘fabricated excuses’’ for an off-duty police officer involved in a
fatal accident on the Southeast Expressway last year, a consultant’s report
alleges.
Stephen R. Benanti, a retired State Police accident reconstruction specialist,
called a State Police investigation into the accident deeply flawed and biased.
In his report, Benanti faulted State Police for not charging Boston police
officer Thomas Griffin, whose vehicle struck and killed Michelle Vibert in her
disabled vehicle at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 12. 2006. Vibert, of Weymouth, was a
29-year-old mother of two.
‘‘It appears the report was written in a manner as to protect Mr. Griffin and
blame Michelle Vibert,’’ Benanti wrote.
Vibert’s father, Joseph S. Mogan, who hired
Benanti to review the handling of the case, is asking Attorney General Martha
Coakley to investigate further. Mogan, who has been critical of both State
Police and Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office for their
handling of the case, believes Griffin’s status as a police officer protected
him from being charged.
State Police declined to comment, referring questions to the district attorney’s
office, the investigating agency in the case. The DA’s office, which disclosed
in January that Griffin would not be charged in the case, denies Mogan’s claims
that the investigation was biased.
‘‘I have no reason to doubt the ethics or professionalism of any investigator
assigned to the Massachusetts State Police,’’ DA spokesman Jake Wark said
Friday. AG spokesman Harry Pierre declined to comment
In the moments leading up to the accident, Vibert’s Toyota Camry had broken down
across from the Dorchester gas tank on a segment of the expressway that has no
breakdown lane.
Mogan’s anger surfaced when he read a portion of the State Police report which
says the crash ‘‘was precipitated by the illegal encroachment of the stopped
Camry in the active right travel lane.’’
Benanti reports that some conclusions reached by state trooper Leo Paulding, an
accident reconstruction specialist, were not based on factual evidence.
Paulding did not begin his investigation until approximately 7˝ hours after the
crash, and at the scene it lasted only 40 minutes, Benanti reported.
Jan 10, 2007
Probe clears cop in fatal I-93 crash ; Weymouth mom's father says inquiry was incomplete.
by JULIE JETTE, The Patriot Ledger.
An off-duty Boston police officer will not be charged in connection with an accident that killed a Weymouth mother of two last summer on the Southeast Expressway.
Investigators from Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley's office determined that while officer Thomas M. Griffin, 27, was going 62 mph, 7 miles over the speed limit, neither speed nor alcohol was a factor in the fatal crash.
Griffin was behind the wheel of a 2006 Ford Explorer that slammed into a Toyota Camry broken down near the Dorchester gas tank at about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 12.
The crash killed Michelle Vibert, 29.
State Police said Griffin appeared sober and they did not conduct sobriety tests on him.
Conley's office said Griffin and his two passengers had come from the Purple Shamrock, a bar near Fanueil Hall, that night, but that he showed no signs of being drunk.
No alcohol containers were found in his car, officials said. Investigators said they based their determination that he hadn't been drinking on accounts from bar employees and other witnesses.
A bartender at the Purple Shamrock told a Patriot Ledger reporter in November that the bar was so crowded on weekends that no employee would be able to remember an individual customer by name.
Jake Wark, a Conley spokesman, said, "State troopers, especially when operating with a badge and the title of homicide detective, are often able to obtain information when someone else would not."
The investigation was conducted by a State Police homicide and accident reconstruction teams. They concluded that the accident was caused by Vibert's car being stopped in a travel lane. There is no breakdown lane on that section of the road.
"Visibility, driver expectancy and other variables may have prevented Griffin from perceiving Vibert's Camry as stationary and thus a hazard," the report on the investigation said.
The force of the crash spun the Camry around and flipped Griffin's SUV. He was treated for minor injuries. Vibert was taken to a Boston hospital, and died four hours later.
Vibert's family raised concerns that Griffin received favorable treatment in the investigation because he is a police officer. They said they were stunned that he was not tested for alcohol.
A Patriot Ledger investigation found that surviving drivers were tested in only 1.7 percent of fatal crashes in Massachusetts in 2005, the lowest percentage in the nation. The national average was 31 percent.
Rep. Frank Hynes, D-Marshfield, and Rep. Brian Wallace, D-South Boston, have said they will file legislation to require alcohol testing in serious accidents.
Vibert's parents, Joseph and Donna Mogan, remain critical of the investigation.
"We're disappointed," Joseph Mogan said yesterday. "There are so many places where they fell short, at the very least."
Vibert's husband, John Vibert, declined through Mogan to comment.
Mogan said that in a meeting he had with Conley and accident investigators yesterday, investigators acknowledged that the time span between the accident and their visual reconstruction, which was done last month, was unusually long. He said investigators said they could not determine how much time Griffin had to avoid hitting the car once he saw it.
Mogan said he also couldn't understand why sworn statements weren't obtained from Griffin's two passengers, who included an MBTA police officer. He said investigators also failed to question two Boston police officers who visited Griffin in the hospital after the accident.
"They were two people who talked to him right after the accident," Mogan said. "I'm sure there's a million other things that they didn't do that they should have done."
Wark, Conley's spokesman, said the investigation was thorough and not biased toward Griffin because he is a police officer.
"I can only say that we promised Michelle Vibert's family a thorough investigation, and that investigation is now complete," he said. "It was performed by experienced homicide detectives who were completely independent of the Boston Police Department."
"There was no way we could prove beyond a scientific doubt that (Griffin) acted negligently," Wark added.
Thomas Drechsler, Griffin's attorney, said his client voluntarily released his medical records from the accident to investigators to try to put to rest any suspicion that alcohol contributed to the accident. Drechsler said he didn't know if Griffin's blood had been tested for alcohol.
"The accident is very sad, it's very tragic. (Griffin) feels the same way, of course, and our sympathy goes out to the family," Drechsler said. "But as terrible as the accident was, he was not legally responsible."
Julie Jette may be reached at jjette@ledger.com
August 14, 2007
OFF-DUTY OFFICER AT WHEEL IN CRASH
Cristina Silva, and Shawntaye Hopkins, Boston Globe
An off-duty Boston police officer was driving a vehicle that struck a disabled car in a travel lane of Route 93 early Saturday morning, an accident that resulted in the death of the stalled car's driver, Boston police said yesterday.
The victim, Michelle L. Vibert, 29, of Weymouth, was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
State and Boston police officials said Officer Thomas M. Griffin, 27, will not be charged in connection with Vibert's death. Griffin was driving south in his 2006 Ford Explorer when he changed lanes near exit 12 in Dorchester and his vehicle struck Vibert's 1998 Toyota Camry sedan at about 2:20 on Saturday morning, said Trooper Veronica Dalton, a State Police spokeswoman.
Dalton said investigators had not explained why Vibert's car had stopped in the right-hand travel lane or whether her car lights were on. Dalton said she did not know if there were passengers in either vehicle.
Griffin, a three-year police veteran who worked in the South End precinct, was treated for minor injuries at Boston Medical Center Saturday before being released, said Elaine Driscoll, a Boston police spokeswoman.
"It was a horrible accident," Driscoll said in a telephone interview.
Albert E. Goslin, Boston's acting police commissioner, released a statement yesterday extending the department's "most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Mrs. Vibert in the wake of their unimaginable and devastating loss."
Goslin also expressed sympathy for Griffin and his family, "who are experiencing an immense amount of sadness as a result of this tragic accident," according to the statement.
Griffin was not available for comment yesterday.
Michelle Vibert's husband, John, gathered with his children and friends yesterday at a relative's home in Dorchester. The duplex on Frost Avenue was mostly silent, with a few people whom neighbors identified as relatives going to and from the house through a chain- link fence. Some friends and family members said they were too grief- stricken to talk to reporters.
"John is really just grieving with his children right now," said a woman at the house yesterday who did not want to be identified. "What happened was an accident and he just is really not interested in talking about it right now."
A neighbor, who asked not to be named, said Michelle Vibert had been on the phone with her husband when the collision occurred.
"He was talking to her on the phone and told her to call AAA, and the phone went dead," he said. When the husband returned the call, a state trooper answered the phone, the neighbor said.
"It's a very, very sad thing," the
neighbor said.