A motorist seriously injured in a high-speed crash that police blamed on a fleeing driver has sued the Pittsburgh detective she claims chased the SUV into a congested intersection.
Labria Henderson of Belle Vernon was driving a Kia Soul in Wilkinsburg around 9 p.m. Nov. 20 when a black Dodge Durango zipped through a red light near the intersection of Penn and East Swissvale avenues, striking her vehicle and others, according to a lawsuit filed this month in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
Nine people were injured in the resulting chain of crashes, which involved at least five vehicles, police said in a criminal complaint.
During the crash, Henderson “hit her face off the steering wheel, knocked several teeth out and had internal injuries,” Henderson’s attorney, Anthony Giannetti, told TribLive on Thursday. She was in the hospital for five days with broken ribs and internal injuries, the suit said.
On March 9, Henderson sued the driver, identified by police as Dior Richardson, and Ashley Burke of Penn Hills, the SUV’s owner. On Wednesday, she added as defendants the city of Pittsburgh and Detective John Abbondanza, who was driving the marked vehicle that conducted a traffic stop on Richardson.
Tinted windows
Abbondanza said he and a federal agent were patrolling Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood when the detective activated his emergency lights and sirens to pull over Richardson.
Richardson had not signaled properly and had “illegal window tint” on his windshield and front side windows that obscured the view of passengers inside the SUV, the complaint said.
Richardson stopped, exchanged a few words with the detective, then fled, according to the complaint.
Henderson’s lawsuit alleges Abbondanza “used his authority as a police officer to initiate and continue a high-speed encounter” after Richardson took off.
Abbondanza “engaged in a sustained high-speed pursuit through a densely populated urban corridor, thereby escalating the risk posed by the fleeing vehicle and creating a dangerous situation that would not have otherwise existed,” according to the lawsuit.
Pittsburgh Councilman Khari Mosley, D-Point Breeze, wrote on social media that night that he had been at the crash scene.
“The driver fled from city police; due to city policy, our officers did not pursue the driver at high speed,” Mosley wrote on a Facebook post dated Nov. 20.
In the criminal complaint, Abbondanza said he followed Richardson, after the failed traffic stop, “with emergency lights still activated for a brief period to make it known we were attempting to pull him over.”
“Once it was apparent that Richardson had no intentions of stopping, I deactivated our emergency lights and reduced our speed,” the detective wrote in the complaint. “We attempted to monitor Richardson while following his path of travel, believing that he would continue to create a substantial safety risk to the public.”
One of the charges against Richardson, fleeing or attempting to elude police, accused him of “engaging in a high-speed chase.”
Abbondanza did not say in the complaint how fast he was driving in his marked unit.
When Richardson crashed, the force of the impact flipped the SUV onto its side, the complaint said. Police approached the vehicle with guns drawn and arrested Richardson. They said he had two guns and drugs in the SUV.
Henderson’s attorney told TribLive on Thursday he didn’t know how fast Abbondanza was going but maintained the chase was “unlawful.”
“You don’t initiate a chase like this,” Giannetti said. “And you’re certainly not supposed to continue it when the offending vehicle was going 80 mph.”
Attorney Ashley Marie Cagle, who represents Richardson, said Abbondanza’s version of how the incident unfolded was inaccurate.
Cagle said Richardson was driving alone, heading home from work, when multiple officers became involved in the traffic stop.
“They came upon him, guns drawn and flanked the car with multiple officers,” she told TribLive Thursday. “One of the officers attempted to open Mr. Richardson’s door … and he fled. He was scared.”
Officers’ body camera footage also showed Richardson, who suffered a broken bone, being “pulled from the vehicle” after the crash and not given first aid, Cagle said.
Disciplinary matter?
State law says police pursuit policies are confidential. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police motor vehicle pursuit policy, posted online, says the policy “shall be confidential and shall not be made available to the general public.”
A police spokeswoman did not respond to emails Thursday seeking comment.
Elizabeth Pittinger, longtime executive director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board, said it might be difficult to determine whether Abbondanza violated police policy.
“It depends, it really does. There’s discretion, of course, but they can’t go after you for a traffic violation,” Pittinger said. A suspect “has got to give you something to believe that something’s wrong, something’s going on. Having window tint doesn’t do it.”
The lawsuit claims Pittsburgh’s public safety director “determined that Abbondanza violated pursuit policy and ordered his termination, confirming that the pursuit was unjustified and dangerous.”
It remains unclear whether Abbondanza was disciplined. Police union head Robert Swartzwelder said Thursday the matter was still pending.
The incident also occurred under a different administration, both at police headquarters and in city hall. Public Safety Director Sheldon Williams and police Chief Jason Lando are now addressing potential discipline for an incident that did not take place on their watch.
“It is unfortunate it ends being this messy,” Pittinger said. “It could’ve and it should’ve been dealt with before the transition between administrations.”
Pittsburgh police in November charged Richardson, 38, of Penn Hills with 32 offenses, including two felony counts each of aggravated assault and aggravated assault by vehicle, and seven misdemeanor counts of simple assault.
Richardson remains in the Allegheny County Jail on $10,000 bail, court records show. His preliminary hearing, which has been postponed five times, is set for April 2.
It also remained unclear Thursday why the federal agent was conducting what Abbondanza’s complaint called a “proactive patrol” in Pittsburgh or which agency employed him.
The “plainclothes” agent, identified in court records as Special Agent McGlennon, was wearing a ballistic vest with police patches and his badge displayed, the complaint said. Abbondanza was wearing his Pittsburgh police uniform.
“You were clearly engaged in some other, more important investigation,” Cagle, Richardson’s attorney, said. “You chose to stop it to pursue a literal motor-vehicle violation.”
TribLive staff writer Tawnya Panizzi contributed to this report.