A Cumberland County man who claims a state trooper shot him without justification after a November 2008 police chase is seeking $1 million in damages in a lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court.
Joshua Grimes of Lower Frankford Township filed his suit against the state police more than a year after a county jury acquitted him of charges that he tried to run over a trooper at the end of the 11-mile high-speed chase near Bloserville.
State police spokesman Jack Lewis said today that the agency doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits.
Police claimed during Grimes’ 2009 trial that two troopers fired at Grimes’ vehicle after they rammed it off the road because Grimes was trying to back over one of the officers. Grimes, who was shot in the chest, claims he wasn’t trying to run down the police.
A jury acquitted Grimes of aggravated and simple assault on police, but convicted him of resisting arrest, fleeing police and reckless endangerment.
During the trial jurors viewed a video of the chase that was filmed from the police cruiser. In the video, one trooper could be heard swearing and saying he wanted to “tune up” the driver they were chasing.
Police said the chase area began when officers tried to stop Grimes on suspicion of drunken driving. Former county President Judge Edgar B. Bayley acquitted Grimes of a DUI charge and imposed a 261-day jail term on his convictions.
Bayley sentenced Grimes to a time-served 261-day jail term on his convictions.
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