Chaffee served with second lawsuit over high-speed chase

A second lawsuit filed against the city of Chaffee and police officer James Backfisch seeks damages for the death of a Delta woman involved in a fatal crash during a police pursuit in September.

[Diane]

Was this WRONG?? Yes I am Garrett's Mom. No one in that car deserved to be hunted down like that

[Shades of Grey]

I am sympathetic about the loss that the families experienced due to the controversy here.......BUT.....truth of the matter is this.
The parties who were being "chased" with high speeds must have been "leading" with high speeds. That being said, it is summed up as the parties in each vehicle chose how to react at that moment, whether right or wrong. I dont believe that anyone expected lives to be lost. It is really noones fault, but like the old saying goes "gotta pay the piper". I believe that everyone in this controversy will or has paid in one way or the other. The families cant hold a grudge on the police dept. The ones who were injured/killed had a choice not to avoid that officer and probably would have been better off today.

[friend of victim]

to Shades of Grey:

How can you say the victims in that car chase, had a choice? They were trapped in the car. What were they to do? Jump out the window, going 100m.p.h.?The driver had a choice to STOP,pull over and let the victims OUT.The police officer had a CHOICE to end the high speed chase, BUTthe injured/killed victims did not.I wonder if that was your child, niece, nephew, or some other family member, I wonder if it hit home to you personally, I wonder if YOU would hold a grudge????

[Diane]

My son was scared the faster the officer went the faster he went.the people that were in the car told my son not to stop and if you knew any of them you would know our families are very close and the people in the car could have been interchangable and the officer would have seen fit to chase them to their death. I think the officer thought he killed them all and Betina wouldn't have been around to tell the TRUTH!

[Hateful]

They should not have ran, But is a traffic violation worth taking a chance on hurting someone.

[spaceyone]

true they should not have run but the police should have taken better measures to stop them instead of goin faster and faster.It should have been odbvious to the police they werent going to stop if they were willing to go 100mph to excape. my sympathy to all whos loved ones died or are never going to recover

[sman]

Knowing the history of both parties, That is, those in the car and the officer as well. I would personally agree that the officer went far and beyond his call of duty.

He was hired to serve and protect the city of Chaffee. Not Bollinger, Stoddard or Cape counties. I could have agree with his actions if he would have chased them out of the city limits, but he went outside of his jurisdiction and pursued them over several counties. If this is the normal procedure for catching vehicles that don't stop, then why do we need the county deputies, highway patrol and neighboring city police officers? Why do they need radios and other forms of communications? Why not just allow them to become Federal agents rather than local officers?

Officer Backfisch was a modern example of Dr. Jykal and Mr. Hyde. He was down to earth and easy going when he was wearing street clothes, but the minute he dressed in uniform...he was robo cop with an attitude. It seems Chaffee attracts this type of so called professionals to protect their streets.

All of this isn't to say that those that were in the car were angels. I know several of them had a rap sheet, and it would'nt have made a short story book. They deserved to be arrested, but not killed nor injured. And, knowing the situation fairly well...they could have been arrested very easily.

This type of action should show the city of Chaffee how unqualified, unprofessional and uncaring our city heads are, for they are the ones that do the hiring. Not only has this matter been an issue within the city, but there is a long list of many more. These things only bring a bad name and disrepected apperance upon the city of Chaffee. Thats why I can't wait to get out of here. This is a sorry town.

[MO_RES]

The way I see it the cops whom most people just love to bash were in fact just doing thier jobs and if criminals would not have been running from the police to begin with that incident wouldn't have happend end of story.

[sman]

MO_RES wrote:

The way I see it the cops whom most people just love to bash were in fact just doing thier jobs and if criminals would not have been running from the police to begin with that incident wouldn't have happend end of story.

You must be a cop?

[someone who knows]

So, I just found this topic and wanted the opportunity to say this in response to everyone.... all cops are Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde...have you ever met one that is not???? Hunted down...is a harsh statement. I challenge anyone to make a split second decision and then have EVERYONE criticize it and look at it and bash it ---over and over and over again. Be ashamed that you're judging people---the people with the rap sheet and the officer.

"It is impossible to know someone elses reality"....

[Big Daddy]

James Backfisch, needs to be charged with murder. Any other police office always want to be in a high speed chase. The idiots need to use their radios and set up road blocks and do thing the right way instead of how they do things. Regardless the reason the person ran, she didn't need to die because of this idiot. If we are chasing someone we would have at leat two tickets ans charges. Speeding and murder. So this idiot needs to be charges as well.

[Big Daddy]

MO_RES, you are a complete idiot.

[SIDENOTE]

In some states evading law enforcement officers is an instant felony. I think it needs to be here. People usually run for a reason. A police officer friend of mine recently chased a car and had sheriff's deputies behind him. The Sheriff told the deputies to stop. Turned out later that the car was stolen and that it wasn't entered into the computer yet becasuse of a discrepency in the VIN. If you run from the law and exceed the boundries of safe driving, that is your decision. You are given two choices - obey the law or don't and risk everything.

"No man is above the law; and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor"
-Theodore Roosevelt

I'm sorry but if somebody loses their life because they chose to disobey the law - it's nobody's fault but their own.

[Chilli Bowl]

Here's a thought! An officer is chasing a car at high speed. He doesn't know why the car is speeding! He stops chasing the car at the city limits. The speeder continues down the road striking a family out for a drive killing everyone. Guess what? The cop gets charged because he was in HOT PURSUIT of a felony fleeing suspect and stopped at his city limits? The officer will be critized no matter what he does!!

[Big Daddy]

Just a thought, a police officer doesn't make any money for the work that they do. There must be a reason. ould it be that most that want the job can't do a real job that makes money and helps to provide for their families. If someone makes under 30,000 per year, it isn't woth working any job for. So, where is this punk Backfish now? He can't hide behiend a uniform forever.

[Thread Killer]

Actually, I was with a police department many years ago. Most departments, the pay is set by the city council. If the park,pond or what ever is the favorite, gets the money. People don't like their taxes to be raised so they don't care if their city workers are under paid. But the real problem in todays world, is no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. If I was to stick my hand through a fence and a dog bit me, my bad!! But some would sue the dog owner because, he didn't have a sign up saying the dog mighht bite. Which reminds me of something that I know happened, that I still think was crazy. A man in a factory where I worked turned a valve on the wall. It was painted bright red with a sign saying 'danger, do not open this valve, only authorized personell'. This idiot opened it anyway, and acid spewwed out getting on him. He sued the company and won, because the sign didn't say what would happen if you opened it. QUIT blaming others for what you do.

[guest]

Big Daddy wrote:

Just a thought, a police officer doesn't make any money for the work that they do. There must be a reason. ould it be that most that want the job can't do a real job that makes money and helps to provide for their families. If someone makes under 30,000 per year, it isn't woth working any job for. So, where is this punk Backfish now? He can't hide behiend a uniform forever.

I totally agree with you that the officers don't get paid for the work they do. However it's not because they can't handle a so called "real job". There have to be people in this world who work for less than 30,000 per year and provide for their families just fine. They may live a little differently and not blow as much money but life and living really doesn't totally revolve around possesions. Also if people didn't work for less our world would be missing a lot of the things we all enjoy like many fast food places, malls, and even grocery stores. The world revolves around the low guy on the chain. As far a police work being a real job, there aren't many that get more real than that. You go into an empty building at 2:00am alone to investigate a burglary and come face to face with an armed subject. That seems pretty real life to me.

[Big Daddy]

That's true guest.

[get a clue]

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. These kids almost hit me and my family less than 10 minutes before they had their fatal accident. They could have killed my entire family because they thought what they were doing was cute and fun and wanted to keep their dumb asses out of trouble because lord knows they were doing something illegal. I've been around this area long enough to know that these punks were trouble. So tell me Big Daddy and Diane, if these kids would have killed my family instead of being killed themselves (and no, they were not being chased by the police at this time), do you think it would be right for my family to charge all of them with murder and sue them for everything that they had? You bet your ass it would be!

[The Vanduser Kid]

It's a bad deal any way you look at it.

I would say since he knew who he was chasing he should have backed off and went and picked them up the next day.

The odds are that if he stopped chasing them they would have slowed down, and probably went home because they would have figured he had other cops looking for them.

But, as a cop you have to make judgement calls from time to time, and sometimes it will be the wrong one.

I have known Eddie Williams my whole life, and when we were young we were good friends. I hated hearing the news when it happened.

It's a no win situation for both sides.

May God forgive us all for the things we have done wrong.

I don't really know you Diane, but I'm very sorry for your loss.