A man charged with fatally striking a D.C. police officer who was assisting a stranded motorist on Interstate 695 in December had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, a police detective testified during a court hearing Monday.
Jerrold Coates, 47, is facing a second-degree murder charge. Additional charges pertaining to the alcohol level have not been filed. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said new charges are typically added when an indictment is issued, which has not yet occurred.
Monday’s hearing was to determine whether prosecutors had enough evidence to move forward to trial in the death of Officer Terry Bennett. D.C. Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt ruled there was sufficient probable cause to sustain the criminal charge. The judge also denied a defense request to release Coates pending trial.
Brandt’s ruling came after a nearly four-hour hearing in which one of the detectives leading the investigation provided a detailed account of the crash that occurred two days before Christmas and severely injured the 32-year-old native Washingtonian. Bennett, who joined the police force eight years ago, died at a hospital Jan. 7.
“Jerrold Coates caused the death of Officer Terry Bennett,” Brandt said in her ruling, noting that videos presented at the hearing show Coates’s vehicle speeding and weaving through slow or nearly stopped traffic near the on-ramp from the Third Street Tunnel. She said pictures of the crash scene shows Bennett’s cruiser “crushed like an accordion.”
Detective Victor DePeralta, assigned to the D.C. police department’s Major Crash Investigations Unit, testified that Coates’s blood alcohol content taken at a hospital after the crash measured double the 0.08 threshold in the District to be charged with driving under the influence. A urine sample measured 0.14, DePeralta testified.
Coates told officers he had met with friends after work and consumed one shot of tequila, according to police statements. But in a later discussion with an officer in his cellblock, Coates said he had “about one or two” drinks of tequila from a shot glass, according to court documents. Marijuana was also found in his system, the detective testified.
Coates’ defense attorney, Rachel Cicurel, with the D.C. Public Defender Service, questioned DePeralta on statements given by five witnesses to the crash, concentrating on how many traffic flares Bennett had placed behind the disabled vehicle to warn oncoming traffic.
One witness told police he didn’t believe the driver of the striking vehicle had seen the flares. Another said the officer put down two flares. DePeralta said he did not know what each witness may have said about flares. Cicurel told the judge the information was pertinent to understanding whether the suspect knew there was an incident up ahead and that he needed to slow down.
Police have said they believe Coates was driving erratically and attempting to change lanes through slow traffic when he struck Bennett. Coates told police another vehicle had cut him off.
Monday’s court hearing included videos taken from private vehicles and officer body cameras. Included was a scene of an officer who knew Bennett rushing from his cruiser to the officer lying in the arms of a colleague, awaiting medical attention. He cried “Oh, God” and shouted “Get a medic,” as other officers rushed to console him.
Another video shows a police detective interviewing Coates in a jail cell shortly after his arrest. Police said he agreed to talk to authorities outside the presence of an attorney. Coates — who works for the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and, according to his attorney, remains employed — told police he had gotten off work and went to hang out with friends. He told police he drank some tequila and smoked some marijuana. He also takes muscle relaxants but said he had not taken any the day of the crash.
“I wasn’t drunk enough to be drunk, like … impaired,” Coates tells the detective in the video. “I don’t know what was going on and I hit an officer like, I don’t even know if you can be that drunk.”
Coates uses a wheelchair and was driving a car equipped with hand brakes and a hand lever for gas, according to police and court documents. At one point in the video he tells police that his “hand controls weren’t working.” Police said they are planning to have the vehicle inspected to determine if any mechanics were faulty. Coates said he recalled “getting cut off a little bit” moments before the crash.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Carter told the judge that Coates told police that alcohol can impact his medical condition, showing he should have known “he should not have been behind the wheel. … He chose to drink and drive. All these choices put everyone on the road at risk.”
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