to handle pursuit
Old Bridge man claims police were not trained
to handle pursuit
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
An Old Bridge man shot twice as he led East Brunswick and Spotswood police on a high-speed chase through four Middlesex County towns has filed a lawsuit against those officers and their departments.
Vincent Drake, 43, of Appletree Lane, filed a notice of claim in state Superior Court June 23 seeking $15 million from the officers who shot him during the chase in March, their departments and the towns of East Brunswick and Spotswood, said lawyer Blair Zwillman of the Woodbridge law firm Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer.
The notice of claim states that police violated Drake’s civil rights when they shot him without justification, falsely arrested him, damaged the 1995 Chevrolet conversion van he had been driving, and caused him personal injury, Zwillman said.
Drake’s court papers also claim that police departments in East Brunswick and Spotswood were negligent in hiring and training the officers who pursued him in the nearly 10-mile chase, which began at about 5:05 a.m. on March 29, Zwillman said.
Now free on a $75,000 bond, Drake was unarmed at the time of the incident, according to court papers filed by Zwillman.
Drake was indicted June 30 by a Middlesex County grand jury on 14 counts, including 12 counts of aggravated assault on four police officers, two each from East Brunswick and Spotswood.
The grand jury continues to investigate the matter, which was presented by Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Ronald Abramowitz, who is handling the case. An arraignment date will be set by the court, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Drake is charged with four counts each of second-, third-, and fourth-degree aggravated assault, one count of second-degree eluding, in which authorities say he created a risk of death or injury, and one count of third-degree possession of cocaine, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Specifically, the second-degree aggravated assault charges were leveled at Drake for attempting to cause bodily injury to Patrolman Louis Sarti and Sgt. Brian Keenan of the Spotswood Police Department, and Patrolmen John Breen and Brian Ventura of East Brunswick.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $150,000 fine.
Drake also faces third-degree aggravated assault charges for causing or attempting to cause bodily injury with a deadly weapon, his van, to the four named officers. Each of those charges carries a maximum of five years imprisonment and a $15,000 fine.
The fourth-degree aggravated assault charges pertain to recklessly causing bodily injury to the officers with a motor vehicle. Those charges each carry a sentence of 18 months and a $10,000 fine.
The incident started when Sarti and Keenan responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle, later identified as Drake’s Chevrolet conversion van, on Karen Street in Spotswood about 5:05 a.m., reports state.
The indictment charges that Drake, the driver of the van, refused to comply with Sarti’s and Keenan’s orders to exit the vehicle, fleeing the scene instead.
As Drake sped away, he struck Sarti with his vehicle. Sarti then fired a single shot from his weapon as he was struck, but that round did not hit the suspect’s vehicle, according to reports.
Sarti and Keenan pursued Drake’s vehicle but reportedly lost sight of it. It was discovered a short time later by a civilian bystander who reported that it had stopped in the parking lot of the Greater New York Insurance Co. at Summerhill and Old Stage roads in East Brunswick, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Officers from East Brunswick responded and attempted to assist Sarti and Keenan in pulling over Drake, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The indictment alleges that Drake again refused to comply with their orders to exit the vehicle and attempted to run down Keenan, Breen and Ventura.
Altogether, six shots were fired at Drake as he drove the van toward them. A fourth East Brunswick officer, who had responded to assist and witnessed Drake’s attempts to strike the other officers, fired three rounds from his gun at the fleeing vehicle, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The officers then pursued Drake about 10 miles from East Brunswick into South Brunswick and then Cranbury. No other shots were reportedly fired during that pursuit or subsequent arrest.
The chase ended in Cranbury when Drake’s vehicle lost its right front wheel and spun out while trying to negotiate a hairpin curve on Station Road. During the course of the pursuit, Drake’s vehicle struck two private vehicles, according to reports.
At one point, Drake drove the vehicle southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 130 into oncoming traffic, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Drake was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick where he was treated and released for two gunshot wounds, one each to his left arm and right shoulder.
He was released from the hospital on March 31 and was committed to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of bail.
Although he has returned to work, Sarti continues to undergo evaluation and treatment for injuries to his left knee that he sustained when the was hit by Drake’s van, according to the prosecutor’s office.