Cop's trial focuses on crash

The father said any financial settlement would go to help improve police training.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A trial will determine whether a Bazetta Township police officer acted wrongly in the death of a Warren teenager in a collision with a state trooper's cruiser.
John D. Robertson, administrator of Joseph F. Robertson's estate, filed the action being heard in the Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge John Stuard.
On Jan. 11, 2001, his 18-year-old son was killed in a crash at North River and Elm roads in Howland Township. Joseph Robertson's vehicle collided with an Ohio State Highway Patrol car operated by Trooper Lee Sredniawa, who was pursing a man whose vehicle was traveling more than 100 mph.
A Bazetta police car was at the intersection at the time.
Robertson said outside court Tuesday that the reason he has pursued legal action is to call attention to the need for officers in departments of all sizes to be trained in police pursuits. He said if the case produces a legal settlement, the money will go to establish a foundation that will advocate training for police officers.
"Folks get on the job training, but that's not enough," he said. "The reason I'm doing this is so that his death, as senseless as it was, would have some meaning."
Robertson himself is a paraplegic as a result of a single-car accident when he was a young man. His late wife, Joette, also was a paraplegic from a single-car accident before she met her husband.
Robertson ran for county commissioner in 2004. His son was a graduate of Warren G. Harding High and was attending Kent State University Trumbull Campus.
What happened
According to court records, Bazetta officer Nick G. Papalas had been on duty at the Warren Wal-Mart on Elm Road when he heard on his police radio that the patrol was in pursuit northbound on state Route 46 in Howland.
Papalas heard that the pursuit was continuing westbound on North River Road and decided to proceed to the Elm Road-North River intersection. His assistance was not requested by Sredniawa.
When Papalas arrived, he pulled into the left-hand turn lane on Elm Road next to the vehicle driven by Joseph Robertson. The traffic light was red. He said he turned on his siren and lights and tried unsuccessfully to make eye contact with Robertson or his passenger.
The fleeing auto drove through the intersection, passing Papalas' and Robertson's cars. Papalas considered joining the chase and pulled forward slightly but then stopped and waited for Sredniawa to pass through the intersection. Meanwhile, the traffic light turned green and Robertson proceeded into the intersection and into the path of Sredniawa's cruiser.
What trooper thought
Sredniawa said it appeared as though Papalas had traffic contained -- saying that if Papalas had not been at the intersection, he would have slowed down considerably and maybe even stopped.
Bazetta Chief Charles Sayers said it was against department policy to act without a request from the district that has jurisdiction -- Howland Township, the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department or the OSHP. Sayers said no one in his department had been trained in pursuits or securing intersections.
runyan@vindy.com