Plainfield crash left a man comatose in October. Why is his family accusing state police?

GRISWOLD —The family of a severely injured Norwich man is accusing a state police trooper of failing to report an October vehicle pursuit in Plainfield that ended with a crash and their loved one in a coma.

During a Friday afternoon press conference at the Comfort Inn in Griswold, Attorney Michael Jefferson, representing the family of 25-year-old Hakeem Thompson, also alleged the pursing trooper drove away from the crash scene without rendering aid to the former Bronx resident.

"The (state police) pursuit protocol was ignored," Jefferson said. "(The trooper) rode past, looked at where the vehicle was in the ditch and took off."

Plainfield police and emergency personnel were dispatched at approximately 9:26 p.m. on Oct. 12 to the area of 137 Lathrop Road for a report of a single motor vehicle crash, according to department documents.

What do Plainfield police and Thompson's family say happened?

Police said they determined Thompson’s 2002 Honda Civic exited a southbound lane of Interstate 395 onto Lathrop Road and a short time later struck a guardrail at the entrance to the Amazon distribution center and overturned onto its side into a culvert.

Police said Thompson was initially transported to the Plainfield Emergency Care Center before being flown by medical helicopter to Hartford Hospital. Jefferson said Thompson was “severely injured” in the crash and remains hospitalized in New Britain with a stage-three brain trauma injury.

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Thompson's father, Steven Thompson, said his son, a former Citigroup employee in New York, spent weeks comatose on a ventilator healing from multiple fractures and cuts. He said his son's prognosis is poor, despite being able to breathe on his own.

"He's unresponsive to verbal communications and won't ever be able to feed himself or walk again," Steven Thompson said. "My son will not be able to live independently."

Maria Myrick, whose daughter was engaged to Hakeem Thompson at the time of the crash, said her future son-in-law planned to join the U.S. Marines after a January wedding to her daughter.

"Hakeem was always smiling, a go-getter," Myrick said. "It breaks my heart to remember seeing him hours before the crash smiling and laughing. And 12 hours later, I walked into a hospital room and saw his body, lifeless. But he's still fighting and we hope justice is done."

Several family members and friends at Friday's gathering, also attended by NAACP Norwich Branch leaders, said Hakeem moved to Norwich about a year ago and had just gotten a new job as a casino security guard when the crash occurred.

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What do videos show from Hakeem Thompson's crash?

On Friday, Jefferson showed four videos short videos, including state police cruiser and body camera footage supplied to him by the Plainfield Police Department and videos from a business near the crash scene, that he said support his allegations.

One video taken from Amazon center cameras, shows a vehicle, identified by Plainfield police as Thompson's, speeding down Lathrop Road with what has been identified as a state cruiser, flashing lights illuminated, a short distance behind.

A second video shows the violent moment as Thompson's car flies into a ditch from Lathrop Road. The video appears to also show the cruiser's brake lights being engaged twice at the crash scene.

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The trooper's body and dashboard camera video show the cruiser, appearing to be traveling quickly, exiting onto Lathrop Road and its lights and sirens being activated near a car dealership. Neither the cruiser nor body camera footage includes specific "meta-data" such as time-stamps or trooper identification.

None of the videos show the trooper exiting his vehicle and state police videos do not capture the footage of the crash or of Hakeem Thompson's overturned car.

Jefferson said the first report of the crash was supplied by a passerby who spotted Thompson’s damaged vehicle, approximately 45 minutes after he entered the culvert.

Plainfield police Chief Mario Arriaga on Friday said his department’s investigation of the incident appears to support Jefferson’s contention that a state police cruiser was pursuing Thompson just before the crash.

He said no troopers were at the crash scene when Plainfield police arrived.

“We later learned that state police attempted to stop (Thompson’s vehicle) only after reviewing video surveillance supplied by local businesses,” Arriaga said.

Arriaga said his department has been in contact with state police officials and the case remains active. He said the same state police body and cruiser camera metadata sought by Jefferson has not yet been forwarded to his department either.

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Thompson's family lawyer considers lawsuit or criminal charges

Jefferson said he intends to file a civil lawsuit against state police and isn't ruling out pushing for criminal charges in the case. He and Hakeem Thompson's family said it's inconceivable to them, based on the video footage, that the pursuing trooper didn't know something had gone horribly wrong on Lathrop Road that night.

"It's a straight road and there's no way he didn't see or hear something," Steven Thompson said. "He even slowed down on the same side of the road where it happened. He did not act professionally or with integrity."

Hakeem's mother, Marsha Thompson, called her son a jovial, kind individual who made friends easily.

"I did not expect this from police - you're supposed to be able to depend on them," she said.

The Bulletin first reached out to state police about the circumstances of the crash on Nov. 11, requesting all documentation, as well as trooper body and cruiser camera footage, related to the incident.

That request was forwarded to the state Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection’s Legal Affairs Unit. On Dec. 27, unit officials confirmed the incident is the subject of an open investigation, but have not made any of the requested materials available.

“We will continue to monitor the status of the investigation and will forward the materials as soon as they become available and are reviewed for public disclosure,” a reply email to The Bulletin’s request stated.

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No accident report related to the crash was found at Troop D, which covers the highways in the Plainfield area.

A separate Freedom of Information Act request was sent to Plainfield police earlier this month requesting any video footage obtained during the department’s investigation.

Jefferson, who is working with Stamford-based attorney Steward Casper, said he has a number of unanswered questions about the crash, including why Hakeem Thompson was being pursued from the highway in the first place and why the trooper waited until Lathrop Road to activate lights and sirens.

"This is about holding police accountable, just like they hold us accountable - as they often do," Jefferson said. "They wouldn't let another trooper lie in ditch for 45 minutes. We don't even know the trooper's name."

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Crash by Plainfield Amazon distribution center leaves man comatose