HOUSTON (CN) - A Houston policeman on trial for running over a theft suspect fleeing in an all-terrain vehicle acknowledged Monday he should have kept his distance, but denied responsibility for the man's death.
Houston police Officer Jordan Greenhaw chased Jason Trevino and Trevino's ATV passenger Bernard Seetaram at speeds approaching 40 mph onto a dirt road, a power line easement, around 3 a.m. on July 27, 2011 in northeast Houston.
Trevino and Seetaram matched the description of two suspects in the area who were accused of stealing a fishing boat and its trailer, Greenhaw testified Monday.
Greenhaw said the chase ended when Trevino tipped the ATV and it rolled under his cruiser. After arresting Seetaram at gunpoint, Greenhaw asked him: "Did your buddy get away?" Greenhaw then walked over to his cruiser and saw Trevino's legs sticking out from under its front bumper.
Greenhaw told the seven-person jury he could hear Trevino moaning: "Get this thing off me. It hurts. Get this off me. I can't breathe."
Greenhaw jumped behind the wheel and tried to back the car off Trevino, but the wreck had disabled its engine. A tow truck driver lifted the car off Trevino, who was taken by ambulance to an emergency room, where he died from a heart attack during surgery to repair his shattered sternum, coupled with complications from a damaged lung. He was 19.
Trevino's parents Lloyd Trevino and Catherine Cortez sued Greenhaw for alleged civil rights violations - excessive force and unreasonable seizure - in January 2013.
The case was removed from Harris County Court to Federal Court. They also sued Houston and its police department for municipal liability, claiming the department failed to train Greenhaw on how and when to pursue suspects.
Civil rights lawsuits against police officers rarely go to trial in Federal Court because the powerful doctrine of qualified immunity, meant to protect officers from liability for making split-second decisions in the line of duty, is typically enough to obtain a dismissal.
Greenhaw raised that defense, but U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore denied it. She also denied the city's motion for summary judgment in an order she filed under seal in December 2015. Gilmore sealed the order because it referred to confidential police reports, according to her law clerk Atticus Lee.
Greenhaw, square-jawed and balding, was the first witness Monday morning, the trial's second day. He wore a dark suit, gray shirt and tie and a frown, his distaste for the plaintiffs' attorneys' questions evident in his body language.
The case boils down to which version of the story the jury will believe.
Greenhaw maintains that Trevino swerved left, overcorrected and tipped his ATV into the path of his cruiser.
Seetaram testified that Greenhaw bumped the back of the ATV twice and caused the wreck.
Greenhaw does not deny he should have handled the chase differently.
"Hindsight is 20/20 and I could have done a lot of things better," he said. "I could have avoided striking the ATV. I could have stayed farther back, let them crash, then went and arrested them."
He testified that the Houston Police Department had a policy at the time that forbade officers from ramming vehicles.
Greenhaw told the city's attorney Henry Carnaby that as he pursued Trevino he tried to stay "at a reasonable distance" behind and to the right of the ATV.