Off-duty state police corporal waives charges, plans to plead guilty in Millcreek hit-and-run
An off-duty Pennsylvania State Police corporal accused of causing a traffic accident in Millcreek Township and then fleeing the scene in June is expected to plead guilty to the four charges he faces in the incident, prosecutors said.
Matthew P. Burns, 39, of Fairview Township, waived his preliminary hearing before Millcreek Township District Judge Laurie Mikielski Tuesday morning.
He waived to court a third-degree misdemeanor count of accidents involving damage to attended vehicle or property and summary counts of failure to stop and give information and render aid, giving false information, and failure to stop at a stop sign.
Assistant District Attorney Hillary Hoffman said Burns waived the charges under an agreement in which he is expected to plead guilty to all four offenses by the end of the year.
Burns remains free on his own recognizance.
Burns was placed on administrative duties with the state police following the incident and remains on administrative duties as the case advances, Capt. Kirk Reese, commander of state police Troop E in Lawrence Park Township, said Tuesday.
Burns joined the state police in 2013 and is currently assigned as a corporal to the Girard barracks in Erie County.
Off-duty trooper claims he hit deer
The Millcreek Township Police Department charged Burns on June 13 in the accident, which happened on June 9 at about 12:50 a.m. at the intersection of West Ridge and Swanville roads in the township.
According to information in the criminal complaint against Burns, police accused him of driving a Chevrolet Silverado that collided with another vehicle after running a stop sign while traveling along Swanville Road.
Officers who responded to the crash found a Kia Sorento with heavy front-end damage and its airbags deployed and were told by its driver that he was driving east on West Ridge Road when he was struck by a Chevrolet Silverado traveling north on Swanville Road, police wrote in the complaint.
The driver of the Kia had a cut on his right leg and was medically evaluated at the scene, but he refused transport to the hospital, according to Millcreek police.
One witness to the accident reported seeing the pickup truck traveling on Swanville Road at a high rate of speed before failing to stop at the stop sign at West Ridge Road and striking the Kia. The witness said the truck then fled the scene, and the witness provided the truck's license plate number to police, according to information in Burns' complaint.
The witness and another witness both reported seeing the truck make a U-turn and flee after the crash. The witnesses also said the pickup truck had a flat tire, police wrote in the complaint.
Millcreek police said they traced the truck's license plate to Burns and went to his Fairview residence, where they found the Chevrolet Silverado in the driveway with damage to the driver's side and a front driver's-side tire that was "disintegrated down to the wheel." Burns admitted to driving the truck but denied striking the Kia, claiming that the damage came from striking a deer somewhere on Swanville Road, according to the complaint.
Investigators wrote that they found what appeared to be hair on the truck but no blood. Officers also checked the area for signs of a deer being hit, but found nothing, according to the complaint.
Police did not impound the truck, and Burns was not asked to submit to a blood draw for testing of possible impairment, Millcreek police reported after the crash.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Hit-and-run: PSP corporal expected to plead guilty in Millcreek case
