OFF THE WIRE
Defense attorney argues that gastric bypass surgery affected ex-cop who's on
trial for wreck that killed two.
What caused the ex-cop to plow his
pickup into a string of motorcyclists in Bangor, killing two and injuring four
in a fiery crash on a beautiful day at the start of the Fourth of July weekend
last year?
Was it the up to six drinks that John P. Heaney III had — as
many as four just before he got behind the wheel? Or was he the victim of a
medical problem that even he wasn't aware of — betrayed by the gastric bypass
surgery that he'd undergone three years before?
In other words, who is
right? Prosecutors, who say a drunken Heaney is guilty of homicide by vehicle,
or the defense, which says authorities jumped to unwarranted conclusions and
blamed a man whose health episode was no crime?
"The facts are: They're
wrong," Heaney's attorney, Dennis Charles, insisted Monday to the Northampton
County jury that will decide his client's fate. "They're not just a little
wrong. They're way off. Alcohol did not cause this crash. What caused this crash
was insulin."
Heaney, 50, a retired Plainfield, N.J., police officer,
refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test after the wreck July 1, 2011, on Route
512. Police say his northbound truck completely crossed into the southbound lane
when it hit the motorcyclists, who were members of the New Jersey-based Last
Chance Motorcycle Club, a support group for riders overcoming drug and alcohol
addiction.
The men were on their way to a wake. Killed were Michael
Zadoyko, 47, and Keith Michaelson, 51, both of New Jersey. Only one of the
bikers escaped injury in the crash, which East Bangor police Chief Robert
Mulligan has described a scene of "a lot of chaos," with some of the motorcycles
on fire and "a few bodies that were laying about."
"I just kept saying to
him, 'You killed my brothers. You just killed my brothers,' " remembered George
Courtis, the last biker in the line. "He just kept saying, 'I'm sorry. … What do
you want me to do?' "
Courtis, a big man who wore the colors of his club,
took the stand on the first day of testimony that Assistant District Attorney
William Blake said will prove that Heaney was drunk. Courtis fought tears as he
described a crash that "scattered us like bowling pins." So did the loved ones
of Zadoyko and Michaelson who were in the audience.
When Michaelson, the
first in line, was hit, "it looked like napalm," Courtis said. "I'm telling you,
it was a ball of flame the size of this room."
He recalled watching
Zadoyko's bike flying "end over end" through the air.
He also remembered
one of the injured men, Jerry Hoogmoed, with his face and arms burned, hobbling
up the road after Heaney's pickup, fearing Heaney would flee.
"He's
screaming, 'He's going to take off. Don't you run. Don't you [expletive] run,' "
Courtis said.
Tammy Morris of Bangor, who was driving behind the
motorcyclists, said she also thought Heaney might be planning to leave the
scene. She said she motioned to him as if to ask where he was going before he
parked his pickup off the road.
"They were probably drunk and he wasn't
drunk," Morris said she overheard Heaney tell police — a statement that brought
gasps from the families in the audience.
http://articles.mcall.com/2012-12-03/news/mc-bangor-motorcycle-club-fiery-crash-20121203_1_john-p-heaney-iii-keith-michaelson-george-courtis
