NASHVILLE -- Trooper Charles Van Morgan says his story hasn't changed since the night the fiery crash lit up the roadside.
"I had to make a quick decision," he told a Tennessee Highway Patrol hearing officer. "I did everything I could do to save the life of the driver."
Morgan, a nine-year veteran of the state Department of Safety, made his case Thursday to keep his job after being fired for driving past the Nov. 26 wreck in North Knox County that killed Gordon Kyle Anito.
The trooper's lawyer says he'll fight the firing as long and as far as it takes.
"If that is what's required, Mr. Morgan plans to continue the appeals process all the way through," said Brock Parks, an attorney with the Tennessee Police Benevolent Association. "It's important to understand those events in the context of what was occurring at the time."
Anito, 20, died when his Subaru Impreza hit a tree on Andersonville Pike head-on around 3:30 a.m. and caught fire. He was leading Morgan on a high-speed chase that topped 80 mph.
Anito's parents have filed a $10 million wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court against Morgan and the THP.
Video from Morgan's cruiser shows he passed the wreck, which sat in full view of the road near a streetlight, and slowed to nearly 20 mph but didn't stop.
"There was smoke rising 20-25 feet in the air," THP Sgt. Terrell Johnson said. "There appeared to be the beginning glow of a fire. You saw or should have seen the crashed vehicle and should have stopped."
Morgan called off the pursuit instead and told dispatchers he'd lost sight of the car. He parked down the road and didn't return to the scene for nearly five minutes -- not until he heard dispatchers broadcast a report of the wreck, called in by a neighbor.
Morgan sprayed the now-blazing car feebly with a fire extinguisher and later admitted he knew Anito was dead but wanted to "put on a show."
Morgan says the stress of the chase and his divided attention led him to mistake the crash for a parked car. He says he slowed down due to a fork in the road.
His sole testimony and evidence at Thursday's hearing consisted of a short written statement he read to the presiding officer, THP Capt. Steve Hazard.
"While I did question whether it was the suspect vehicle, I dismissed it," Morgan said. "I did not think it was the wrecked vehicle."
A preliminary autopsy indicated Anito died "instantly" when he wrecked. Morgan didn't know that then or whether anyone else was in the car.
Results of routine tests for drugs and alcohol on Anito aren't complete yet, according to the THP. His last posts to Twitter and later comments by friends indicated he'd left a party and had been drinking.
Marcos Garza, the lawyer for Anito's parents, didn't deny those suggestions but said the lawsuit's not about that.
"The Anitos are comforted by the fact that the THP seems to agree with their claims," Garza said. "The family would be the first to tell you his decision to run was a bad choice. If he'd been drinking, that was a bad choice as well. What this case is really about is the response of our public servants and what we would want them to do in any citizen's case."
Morgan will face no criminal charges. Hazard, the hearing officer, will consider his appeal and recommend to state Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons whether the firing should become final.
Gibbons could make that decision in the next two weeks. Morgan remains on paid leave.
Copyright 2012 - The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
