No Charges For Superior Police Officer In Runover Accident
No charges will be forthcoming for the Superior Police Officer involved in last winters runover accident. Officer Joshua Sislo had been under investigation since the situation occurred in February.
The decision not to pursue charges came from the District Attorney. In his decision statement, Douglas County District Attorney Mark Fruehauf shared that "[i]t is this writer's conclusion that the evidence does not support that a crime was committed by Officer Joshua Sislo."
An investigation into Sislo's activities and involvement in the case began after the squad car he was driving struck the victim. According to an article in the Superior Telegram [paywall]:
"On February 19 around 9:36 PM, several Superior Police Officers were dispatched to the intersection of North Eighth Street and Tower Avenue on a report of a man lying in the road with injuries. The man, who has never been identified, was in critical condition at the time of the accident."
At the same time of the call to report the individual that was lying in the road, Officer Sislo was on duty, "searching for a man reportedly looking into vehicles in the 1000 block of Tower Avenue". He was one of the first officers responding to that call.
As Sislo turned the Superior Police squad car right off of Tower Avenue, he "recalled hitting something that he believed was a chunk of ice. He reported checking his side mirror after the impact but did not see anything so he continued on his patrol."
Sislo's squad car was passing the police station on Eighth Street when he heard the report of the man lying in the roadway. "Sislo informed his supervisor that he may have been involved in the incident and asked his supervisor to review the video footage from the dash-mounted camera in his squad car".
As part of the review by the District Attorney, Fruehauf said that "[w]atching the video in slow motion, about one second before the impact, there appears to be a person lying in the intersection". Although footage doesn't determine how, why, or when the man came to be lying there.
From Fruehauf's written decision:
"It's also worth noting that Officer Sislo was the first person to bring to his supervisors attention that he may have been involved in this and caused his supervisor to review the squad camera footage from earlier that night. The evidence does not support that Officer Sislo knew or had reason to know that he may have been involved in an accident involving injury to a person at the time of the incident. As such, no criminal charge will be filed in connection with this matter."
In general, the District Attorney believes that all of the statements made by Sislo "were consistent with the evidence gathered during the investigation".