Prosecutor: N.J. trooper reckless in crash that killed teens

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - Three weeks after New Jersey State Trooper Robert Higbee blew through a stop sign while on duty, crashing into a minivan and killing two teen-agers, he told investigators that he remembered stopping at the sign and looking both ways before proceeding through the intersection.

"If only that were so," First Assistant Prosecutor David Meyer told a jury yesterday. "I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here.

"Perhaps most importantly, Jacqueline Becker and her sister, Christina Becker, would be looking forward to spending Mother's Day with their family."

The two girls were killed that night in September 2006 at Tuckahoe and Stagecoach Roads in Upper Township. Jacqueline, 17, was driving. Her 19-year-old sister rode with her to get milk at a store.

Higbee, trying to chase down a speeder, crashed into them at 65 m.p.h., Meyer said during opening arguments in Superior Court. Higbee, who was suspended from the state police without pay, faces trial on two counts of vehicular homicide.

The case has garnered national attention, and members of the Higbee and Becker families were among those filling the courtroom yesterday.

Higbee's attorney, D. William Subin, said the trooper made a tragic mistake but did not commit a crime.

He said the intersection is "dark and dangerous," and the stop sign is farther to the right than normal. He suggested that Higbee did not see that sign, and mistook a stop sign at the next intersection, two-tenths of a mile away, for the Tuckahoe-Stagecoach intersection.

"Is it logical that the trooper decided to risk his life and others by consciously disregarding the stop sign?" he asked. "Trooper Higbee is a human being like the rest of us. We all have frailties and we all make mistakes."

Meyer said that when the trooper spoke to investigators, he did not know his Ford Crown Victoria contained an "event data recorder," which documented his speed and braking for the 25 seconds before the collision.

Meyer said the data showed Higbee topped 70 m.p.h. on a road with a 35 m.p.h. speed limit while in pursuit of the speeder. About 520 feet from the intersection is a sign warning of a stop sign ahead. The recorder showed Higbee touched the brakes lightly there, then accelerated again.

"He doesn't slow down - he speeds up," Meyer said.

Higbee did not slow down meaningfully until 1.2 seconds before the crash, dropping his speed from 75 to 65 m.p.h., the data showed. Meyer said Higbee hit the brakes only after realizing he was going to crash.

"That data cannot be reconciled with his assertion of having stopped, looked both ways, and proceeded through the intersection," Meyer said.

Subin said his client's statement about stopping at the intersection was taken out of context in an interview with detectives, at a time when many of the details of the violent collision remained fuzzy to Higbee.

"It's a common occurrence . . . that you may not be able to remember the precise details" after a crash, he said.

The question for the jury, both attorneys agreed, was whether Higbee acted recklessly and made a "gross deviation" from what police officers would consider reasonable.

Meyer said Higbee had passed through the intersection moments before and could not have been unaware of the stop sign. The state attorney general's policy also dictates that a trooper passing through an intersection controlled by a light or sign must slow down and determine if it is safe to proceed.

The driver Higbee was attempting to chase down was a 17-year-old who had just left his girlfriend and was speeding home to make curfew. The teenager was at the next intersection when the crash occurred and saw it in his rearview mirror.

Subin said Higbee was doing his duty when he pursued the speeder - and was following another rule of the attorney general's, which says a trooper must "close the gap" with a speeder before turning on lights and sirens.

That rule is meant to ensure that the trooper can see the license plate and pull over the driver in a safe spot, Subin said. Higbee had not closed the distance and had not yet turned on his lights and sirens when he crashed into the Becker sisters.

Subin also said the headlights on the speeder's car, stopped at the next intersection, would have illuminated the stop sign there, further confusing the trooper. He said that for the jury to convict Higbee, prosecutors must show he knew he was blowing through an intersection and ignored the risks.

"You cannot judge reckless in this case by the tragic results," he said.

Meyer said he was not trying to "Monday morning quarterback" a tough decision the trooper made in the heat of the moment. But he said there was no excuse for Higbee to drive through the intersection at that speed.

"Sometimes good people do bad things," Meyer said. "This is one of those instances."