Cortland officer’s trial begins

The girl was jogging across the street at the time of impact, a witness said.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — An eyewitness testified Monday in the civil trial of a Cortland police officer whose cruiser struck and killed a 16-year-old girl crossing South High Street in 2006.

Ryan Repko, now of Florida, said in videotaped testimony that he was among several people “hanging out” at a house on South High Street on July 25, 2006, the night Cassandra Thompson died.

Repko said Cassandra had gone to the Circle K store and was walking back across the street to the house, then walking fast, then jogging at the time of impact.

He denied that he or Cassandra were doing drugs that night, even though authorities found a variety of drugs in Cassandra’s system.

Cassandra’s father, William D. Thompson of Kinsman, filed a lawsuit, which accuses the driver of the cruiser, Officer Jason Smith, of acting in a “reckless, willful or wanton” manner at the time of the accident. Also named as defendants are the City of Cortland and the Cortland Police Department.

The suit seeks at least $25,000 in damages from the parties.

Smith and another officer were responding to an emergency call in another part of town when Cassandra was struck about 11:30 p.m.

Presiding over the case in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court is visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran of Cuyahoga County.

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. today.

An investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol showed that Smith was traveling between 59 and 66 mph when he first applied his brakes. The speed limit on High Street is 35 mph.

Had Smith been traveling at the speed limit, the car would have stopped short of the collision, the state patrol determined. Smith did not activate the lights and sirens on the cruiser.

The investigation showed that Cassandra did not cross High Street at a crosswalk, said Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor.

The investigation showed that Cassandra had a cocktail of prescription drugs in her system when she died. She had no prescription for the drugs. Two toxicology screens found that Cassandra had in her system a mixture of methadone and oxycodone, both painkillers; and diazepam and nordiazepam, both antidepressants.

The girl normally lived with her grandmother in Johnston Township or her father in Kinsman.