Update: Batavia Police Officer Suspended for March 30 Crash
The officer has been with the department for 11 years. Here
are the details.
Police Chief Gary Schira suspended Officer Scott Mercil for
1.5 days without pay,
A crash report indicated Mercil was behind the wheel of the
at-fault vehicle in a March 30 crash in which a pickup truck hit the rear
passenger-side door of his squad car. Mercil was preparing to pull another
vehicle over and followed behind it as it turned left from southbound Randall
Road onto eastbound McKee Street.
Mercil was struck by the northbound pickup truck after he
drove into the intersection, according to the report.
Mercil did not appeal his suspension to the Board of Fire
and Police Commissioners. He had until today, Wed., May 2 to decide whether to
appeal Schira’s decision, the Daily
Herald reports.
The Chronicle's story said Mercil will not be issued any
citations as a result of the crash.
Schira described the accident as avoidable and preventable
in the media reports.
Mercil and three people from the pickup were taken to Delnor
Hospital in Geneva, but their injuries were not serious, said Dan Eul, Batavia
deputy police chief.
Schira has not made a decision yet on whether another
officer will be disciplined in an unrelated April 12 crash. A crash report
indicated that a Batavia police officer’s police SUV was the at-fault vehicle
after it entered an intersection as another squad car passed through the same
intersection. The vehicles made contact twice before coming to a stop. The
squad car hit a tree and the SUV hit a parking sign.
The officers had minor bumps and bruises following the
crash, Eul said.
The police vehicles collided at Lincoln and Houston streets
as officers responded to an emergency call of a fight in progress.
All three police vehicles in the two crashes are out of
service.
Batavia Patch could
not reach police administration late Wednesday afternoon for further comment
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and
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strike rule on abuse, and a permanent
DOJ office on Police Misconduct.