Title: Cop Quits Over Traffic Stop of Elderly Speeder (Video) Source:
AP Mobile/YouTube URL Source:http://YouTube Published:Aug 7, 2010 Author:n/a Post Date:2010-08-07 00:38:37 by Murron Keywords:None Views:6649 Comments:6
Cop Quits Over Traffic Stop of Elderly Speeder (Video)
An elderly man racing to the hospital says a Texas police officer almost cost him his life after the officer held him up for over an hour during a traffic stop. (Aug. 6)
LUFKIN, Texas (AP) — A Diboll police officer resigned following a videotaped traffic stop in which he is heard and seen berating a driver who was rushing his 73-year-old passenger to a hospital.
Officer Grant Jones stopped a pickup truck driven by 75-year-old Tracey Lott July 27 in Lufkin, about 10 miles from Diboll, KTRE-TV reported. Lott was driving Johnny Hodge of Seven Oaks to the hospital with his hazardous lights flashing when he was stopped near an intersection.
Videotape from a patrol car dashboard camera, obtained in an open records request by KTRE, shows Jones with his gun drawn, breaking the driver's side window and hauling out Lott.
Hodge can be heard saying "I have a doctor waiting on me."
Jones replies, "it don't make no difference," and also says "just because you got a medical problem, don't think you can come out here on the highway and do whatever you want to do. When you get to the hospital you're going to have a pair of handcuffs waiting on you."
Jones, who resigned Tuesday, says he would have helped the men reach the hospital if they had immediately stopped. He declined further comment. A call Friday by The Associated Press to a telephone number listing for Grant Jones in Diboll went unanswered and no message could be left.
Hodge, who has respiratory and blood pressure problems, was examined by Lufkin EMS personnel at the scene and declined to be transported by them. Hodge was then driven by Lott to the hospital, where he spent several days.
A police review found that Jones violated policy by not waiting for backup officers.
Diboll Police Chief Kent Havard says a ticket Jones wrote to Lott, for speeding and failing to stop, has been dropped.
