A Prince George’s County police officer has been indicted on charges of negligent manslaughter involving a vehicle, homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol and other related counts in a fatal crash in July, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara Jackson said in a news release Thursday. A retired D.C. police detective was killed.
Anthony Coleman, who was 34 at the time of the crash, was accused of drinking and speeding on July 7 and crashing his Ford F-250 truck into a Nissan Maxima driven by Carlton Herndon on Route 301 in Prince George’s, Maryland State police said in a news release at the time of the crash.
Herndon, 56, of Clinton, Maryland, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Retired from the D.C. police department after 28 years, Herndon served as a district court bailiff in Prince George’s County, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Coleman was off duty at the time of the crash, police said. He had been placed on administrative leave with pay by the county police department. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Iris Toyer, Herndon’s mother, said she hopes Coleman receives a sentence that keeps him from ever being able to drink and drive again.
“The very same thing he would arrest someone for doing, he goes out and does it,” she said. “He did not take his oath of office seriously. I think that it was disrespectful to not only to my family, but all the other people on the road.”
At his funeral, mourners described Herndon’s son as warm-hearted and protective, and as someone who joked constantly, dressed stylishly and loved his friends and family.
“He was the kind of officer and detective you wanted on your team. Calm under pressure, sharp on the streets, and always good for a laugh when the job got too heavy,” Durriyyah Habeebullah, a retired colleague from the D.C. police, said at his funeral. “But the badge didn’t define him. It just reflected who he already was: strong, loyal, dependable, and full of life.”
Herndon was one of 97 people killed on the roads of Prince George’s County last year, according to state records. About a third of those crashes involved drugs or alcohol. Route 301, which passes through Maryland on its way from Delaware to Florida, has long been known as dangerous. The state did a study back in 1998 of why so many people had died on the highway, but little has been done in the past quarter-century to make it safer.
It was not immediately clear whether Coleman has an attorney.
“He’s entitled to his due process,” said Sherrice Carpenter, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89, the union that represents Prince George’s County police officers. “We stand behind him while he gets that.”
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