The family of a Reading man crushed by a bulldozer in a police search for pot gets a $475,000 settlement
Gregory Longenecker was killed in July 2018 after a Pennsylvania Game Commission employee caught him growing 10 small marijuana plants.
READING —The Pennsylvania State Police and Pennsylvania Game Commission have agreed to pay $475,000 to the family of a Reading man who was crushed to death by a bulldozer when authorities went to arrest him for growing marijuana on state land.
Gregory Longenecker, 51, was run over by the 9-ton vehicle while 15 state troopers searched for him on state game lands in Penn Township, Berks County, in 2018. The short-order cook was being pursued after a Game Commission employee found him with 10 small marijuana plants he and a friend had been growing on the property.
His family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit saying that the police tactics in the search were “ridiculous” and that Longenecker did not pose a threat to anyone as troopers pursued him. The suit was settled Thursday with no admission of wrongdoing.
Longenecker’s uncle, Mike Carpenter, said the financial agreement was a bittersweet victory.
“I’m hoping this brings a lot of awareness, because there definitely has to be a change in enforcement and the way troopers pursue,” Carpenter said after a hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl, who approved the settlement. “This was a nonviolent crime, but it ended up in a violent way.”
Prosecutors from state Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, who represented the state police and Game Commission, declined to comment.
» READ MORE: State troopers, Game Commission used 9-ton bulldozer to kill man growing pot, lawsuit says
Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams ruled that Longenecker’s killing was accidental, and cleared all involved troopers of any wrongdoing. He concluded that Longenecker, in an attempt to hide, had crawled beneath the bulldozer as it was stopped and was crushed when it resumed moving.
Carpenter’s attorney, Jordan Strokovsky, disputed that finding and likened Adams’ investigation to a cover-up.
“Rather than admit what happened and apologize for their excessive tactics and turning a harmless, music-loving, short-order cook into human roadkill because he was growing some marijuana,” Strokovsky said Thursday, “the state police, with the assistance of the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, disregarded evidence and presented ridiculous and unfounded conclusions.”
The bulldozer, owned by the Game Commission, was commandeered by state police after Longenecker ran into thick brush after being confronted by the troopers.
In court documents, Strokovsky said the pilot of a helicopter brought in to aid the search, Cpl. Edward Stefanides, had expressed reservations about the pursuit. Stefanides said he had never seen a bulldozer used to pursue a fleeing suspect.
Mark Weiss, the Game Commission employee who was using the bulldozer to clear a nearby field when he spotted Longenecker and his marijuana plants and called police, told investigators he warned the troopers that they would be “driving blind” if they used the bulldozer in their search.
“Rather than call off this crazy and lethal act,” the lawsuit said, the corporal leading the search for Longenecker rode on the bulldozer as Weiss sat at the controls and led it on its “warpath.”