More than 22 years ago, Worcester Police Officer Peter Kneeland was severely injured when he was struck by a car at a police detail. This past weekend, he died in an institutional care facility having never recovered from the injuries he sustained. Kneeland, 62, was injured on Sept. 18, 1991 after having worked 14 years as a police officer, according to local newspaper The Worcester Telegram and Gazette. The officer had been in institutional care since the incident with his family helping with the care, particularly by his mother, Susan, who died in 2010. Since then, his brother and sisters have taken care of him, according to the newspaper. Retired Worcester Police Officer Peter Kneeland, who was severely injured while working a paid police detail on Cambridge Street on Sept. 18, 1991, died over the weekend. He worked 14 years as a police officer. Read More... http://www.officer.com/news/10811614/mass-officer-dies-21-years-after-hurt-in-hit-and-run
The driver who hit Kneeland fled the scene initially, but was later caught and convicted of causing the collision. bet he got out of jail a long time ago R.I.P. Officer Kneeland
Gut wrenching story, I feel bad for not knowing about it until now. I say drag the drunks ass back in court.
RIP Sir. Possibly, but I doubt it's likely. Unlike most other states, Massachusetts doesn't have the old so-called "year and a day rule", an old common law doctrine that essentially deemed any death occuring more than a year after the event as not caused by the event. The SJC got rid of it in 1980, while most states still have it IIRC. Commonwealth v. Lewis, 381 Mass. 411, 418, 409 N.E.2d 771 (1980). The exception is that if the event occurred before the case was decided--i.e., if the officer had been struck in 1979, the rule would still apply. Nowadays, you simply have to prove the event was the cause of the death and he didn't just die as he otherwise would have 21 years later. Trooper Englehart's case would likely have been a bit easier to prove becasue of the relatively much closer span of time between the event and death. It would be a tough case for a prosecutor, I suspect. The real issue will arise if the defendant had already been tried and/or convicted, because jeopardy attaches. If any of the crimes he was previously charged with were lesser included offenses of any potential new, stepped-up post death charges, the driver would be protected by the double-jeapordy protections. (This is something called the Blockburger test for all you legal junkies.)
