Posted on 02/23/2012 7:47:49 AM PST by Altariel
A teenage boy was dead, his crumpled bicycle still lying underneath a van at the South Side intersection where he was struck by a speeding car shortly before 2 a.m. A few blocks away, off-duty Chicago police Officer Richard Bolling had been stopped driving the wrong way down a one-way street, the windshield of his Dodge Charger smashed and splattered with blood. The patrol officers smelled alcohol on his breath and found an open bottle of beer in the console.
If it were a typical fatal DUI investigation, the driver would be promptly asked to consent to field sobriety tests and a breath test.
But with an off-duty cop involved, Lt. John Brundage decided to order the patrol officers to hold off on testing Bolling until a higher-ranking commander arrived, leaving the officer to sober up in the back of the police car as crucial minutes ticked by that early morning in May 2009. Two hours after the crash, Bolling was given a field sobriety test. He wasn't ordered to take a breath test until almost three hours after the field test.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Not at all.
Much of what transpired over the next several hours was captured on the dashboard camera of the squad car where Bolling had been placed under arrest.
According to a court filing, shortly after 2 a.m., an undisclosed superior officer leaned into the car and said to Bolling, "We're going to have to give you the standard field sobriety test. ... I'm gonna try to help you out as much as possible, the lieutenant's on the scene."
Prosecutors did not play that portion of the video for the jury, and the state's attorney's office denied the Tribune's Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the entire video, citing the pending criminal case.
There are experts that can testify to the blood alchohol levels at the time of the crash.
“There is one way to weed out those who should never enter law enforcement.....get rid of affirmative action testing and hiring.”
So only minority cops are corrupt?
But this case didn’t occur in a rural area. It occurred in the South Side.
Well the last time I checked, affirmative action/political correctness applied to gender, race, mental and physical deficiancies, and sexual orientation. So to answer your question....no.
I guess my original point is too vague.
Yes, and they are talking about “field test” which officers conduct on the scene.
So, getting rid of Affirmative action would stop officers from aiding an officer who killed a teenager in a DUI?
It seems to me that the problem in the Chicago police department is not limited to the results of affirmative action.
This is another example of us verses them.
You are pimping for cops on FR. We don’t need a special class of protected, armed, militarized, corrupt people.
Convenient.
No.
But if you can only get in through affirmative action, with a lowering of standards, then you are more likely to be incompetent.
Don't you think?
It wasn’t incompetence which led to this event. It was the criminal behavior of one cop and then numerous others helping to cover up the crime involving the death of an innocent.
Criminal vs incompetent, there is a difference.
So again, what does affirmative action have to do with this crime and subsequent coverup?
Criminal vs incompetent? Sure, you’re right about that.
However, my comment was more broadly based, and had to do with affirmative action, per se.
It’s criminal in itself.
Further, the incompetent are more apt, I think, to take shortcuts. However, in this particular case, I don’t know that it makes a difference. Do we even know what flavor of “protected group” that these policemen were, if they were? I don’t even know that.
Well the guy expressing remorse looks white, guess that makes him highly qualified in your book.
November 10, 2010
The off-duty Windsor Locks police officer who drove the car that hit and killed a 15-year-old boy was drinking at a tailgate party outside the UConn- West Virginia football game hours before the crash, state police sources have told The Courant.
The sources said investigators are developing a timeline of Michael Koistinen's whereabouts in the hours before his car hit Henry Dang shortly before midnight on Oct. 29. Dang, a Windsor Locks High sophomore, was riding his bicycle home from a friend's house on West Street in Windsor Locks when he was killed on Spring Street.
The Courant reported Wednesday that state police also have a video of Koistinen, 24, drinking at the Suffield Tavern that night before the accident.
Windsor Locks police did not take a blood sample from Koistinen or administer a Breathalyzer test. The sources said Koistinen went to the bar after attending the tailgate party at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. It is unclear if Koistinen watched any of the game, which went into overtime, but sources said investigators have witnesses who can place him there before the 8 p.m. kickoff.
Hartford State's Attorney Gail Hardy asked state police to take over the investigation last week. Windsor Locks police and the North Central Municipal Regional Accident Reconstruction Team, made up of officers from area departments, initially conducted the probe.
Windsor Locks Police Chief John Suchocki told The Courant Wednesday that the regional accident team was called to the scene at 12:10 a.m., within minutes of the accident. Suchocki did not say when the first officers from the team arrived to take over the investigation.
He also would not comment on whether Sgt. Robert Koistinen, Michael's father, was in charge of the crash scene. Dang's family had criticized the department for allowing the elder Koistinen to be at the scene.
Sources said Michael Koistinen had already been taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs when members of the regional reconstruction team arrived after the accident. State police sought Koistinen's medical records from the hospital to see if blood was drawn during the course of treating him; sources said it was not.
State police investigators returned to Spring and West streets Wednesday to take more measurements. The state's reconstruction team was at the scene shortly before midnight this past Friday, which was the time that the accident occurred a week earlier.
Dang's brother, Ha Tran, said Dang was supposed to get a ride home from his parents or his friend's mother, but decided to ride his bicycle because he was going to need it the next day.
Michael Koistinen, who is on paid administrative leave, was traveling west on Spring Street, coming over a small hill leading into the intersection where the crash occurred. There is a 35 mph speed limit sign nearby, as well as a sign that a blind child lives nearby on Spring Street, within a quarter-mile of the accident site.
Fortunately this fiasco and cover-up was not swept under the rug.
Sgt. Robert Koistinen, who is awaiting trial on charges that he interfered with the investigation of a fatal crash involving his son, will receive $48,815 in disability payments for heart and hypertension ailments..............poor baby...........son, had been rejected by five PDs previous to this hire. He has been on paid administrative leave since the fatal crash, while parents buried their child.
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