No Chase Seen in Officers’ Accident : Questioning to Continue About Why Car Was Speeding

A San Diego police officer was traveling in excess of 60 m.p.h. and ran at least one stop sign on a downtown street before his city car skidded almost an entire block and crashed into a utility pole last weekend, police said.

On Monday police assigned an internal affairs sergeant to investigate the accident, which occurred Friday night near the intersection at L Street and 12th Avenue.

The driver of the car, Officer Jesse R. Almos, 37, was in serious but stable condition Monday after undergoing 11 hours of surgery at UC San Diego Medical Center. Almos, a member of the police department’s Narcotics Street Team, suffered a fractured neck and pelvis and multiple fractures on both legs. He has had two major operations since Friday.

Three other officers in the car, James Boyd, 28, Tony McElroy, 29, and Michael Gordon, 30, escaped without serious injury. All are patrol officers from the department’s Southeastern station who were on loan to the narcotics team.

According to Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen, the four officers had finished an undercover narcotics investigation at 7 p.m. when they went to “happy hour” at PJ’s Warehouse Restaurant & Lounge, 200 5th Ave. The officers stayed at the bar from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Burgreen said.

“The three officers who we can talk to all admit they had a few drinks,” Burgreen said. “Nobody was counting.”

Police said that the alcohol level in Almos’ blood was 0.02%, well below the 0.10% considered to be unlawful when driving an automobile. If accurate, such a low blood alcohol level would indicate that Almos had one or two drinks in the hour he spent at the bar, Burgreen confirmed.

The results of similar tests administered to the three passengers were not yet known, Burgreen said.

Based on interviews conducted at area hospitals shortly after the accident, Burgreen provided the following details of events leading to the accident:

Almos left the bar in a city-owned red 1983 Mustang and headed east on L Street to drive the three officers back to the Southeastern station. The unmarked car reached speeds estimated in excess of 60 m.p.h. within seven short city blocks on L Street when it swerved to avoid a taxicab entering the intersection at 12th Street. The car then skidded before it wrapped around a utility pole.

Although witnesses reported that the officers appeared to be in pursuit of another car, Burgreen said no high-speed chase took place.

Burgreen added that police do not know why the vehicle was traveling so fast in a 25 m.p.h. speed zone. Almos remains hospitalized and cannot be interviewed.

“(The officers) weren’t asked that specific question,” Burgreen said. “We will be reinterviewing them for more details. They were in the hospital when we interviewed them, and we were more concerned about their injuries than an in-depth interview of what was taking place.”

Burgreen said that Sgt. Bill Brown, the internal affairs investigator assigned to the case, will begin interviewing the officers this week to determine whether any laws or city policies were violated.