Posts Tagged ‘“state trooper”’

Fox 25 TV has reported the driver who hit and killed a Massachusetts state trooper has left the hospital. He is scheduled to appear in court and be criminally charged, but has not been formally charged yet.

David Njuguna, 30, of Webster, is expected to appear in Dudley District Court in about a month and be formally charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stay within marked lanes and speeding, State Police told the news station. He is currently out free without court bail conditions, though his driver’s license has been revoked.

Fox 25 TV asked Attorney Marc Breakstone, who has represented car accident victims in Massachusetts for 30 years, why criminal charges have not been filed already.

Breakstone said State Police have a defined process for handling accident reconstructions and are following it.

“These are to be considered preliminary charges until the state reconstruction team completes its analysis, issues its determination whether or not negligence was involved in the death of this officer,” Breakstone said.

Additional charges may be filed after the accident reconstruction is complete.

Earlier this month, Njuguna’s car reportedly veered across three lanes of traffic at a high rate of speed on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Charlton, hitting and killing State Trooper Thomas Clardy, who was in the breakdown lane making a traffic stop. Clardy, a 44-year-old father of four, had been a state trooper since 2005.

Njuguna, 30, was injured in the car crash and transported to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. He suffered a concussion, two broken wrists and a thigh wound in the crash, according to The Boston Globe. Relatives later told a Globe reporter he had no memory of the crash.

Fox 25 TV reported sources said investigators are looking at the possibility that Njuguna intentionally hit the State Police officer’s cruiser.

Breakstone said that would be hard to prove.

“If there is evidence from the state police reconstruction analysis that this was an intentional act he may be charged with murder,” he said.