ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER|
Controversy seems to follow Iron Gate Police Sgt. Jim Phillips around.
Or, it may be more accurate to say he chases it.
Phillips, the town's only police officer and keeper of Iron Gate's 35 mph speed limit, earned notoriety last summer after he pulled over an ambulance on its way to a hospital with a possible heart attack victim.
Now he's been found guilty of reckless driving after a motorist charged that Phillips nearly hit him head-on while the officer was chasing someone suspected of driving on a suspended license. A Botetourt County General District judge determined Tuesday that Phillips' passing of a tractor-trailer on a narrow, two-lane stretch of U.S. 220 was not safe, just successful.
Dennis Wayne Dew said he was on his way home about 9:30 a.m. March 1 when Phillips shot around the tractor-trailer on a curvy stretch of the road just north of Gala.
``He didn't slow down,'' Dew testifed Tuesday. ``He just kicked the carburetor in and came at me full blast.'' Dew said Phillips' car was entirely over the double-yellow center line.
Phillips wasn't exactly on a high-speed chase. He said it took him 13 minutes to cover seven miles before he caught the suspect. He said he got hung up in southbound traffic until a tractor-trailer in front of him pulled over enough for him to try to pass.
But Dew said Phillips was going plenty fast when he encountered the police car.
``I saw the red lights flashing in his grill, but I didn't hear any siren. I just heard him hitting the gas,'' he testified.
Dew said he slammed on his brakes to avoid a collision. Phillips swerved back into the southbound lane, missing Dew's car by about 6 feet. Dew said he went to Town Hall that afternoon to register a complaint.
Phillips testified that his car was only halfway over the yellow line and that he knew he had plenty of room to pass the truck.
Noting that it ``gives me no pleasure'' to pursue charges against a law enforcement officer, Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom argued that the entire pursuit was a bad idea. All Phillips had to do, Branscom said, was get a warrant and serve it at the suspect's home later.
Judge Louis K. Campbell agreed.
``A suspended license wasn't important enough to warrant endangering the public,'' he said. ``These were not emergency conditions.''
He fined Phillips $100 and suspended $75 of it.
Whether the charge will cost Phillips his job, too, may be decided this week. Iron Gate Mayor Otis Payne, who was at the trial, said he will probably call a special session of Town Council this week to consider Phillips' fate.
Town Council also heard concerns about Phillips last summer. An ambulance driver complained to council after Phillips pulled him over during an emergency call. The driver was carrying a possible heart attack victim to the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Phillips' attorney, former Botetourt Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Hagan, immediately filed an appeal of the conviction. A hearing is set for April 11 in Botetourt County Circuit Court.
Phillips had little to say after the trial, except that he and Dew ``saw the same thing two different ways.''
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