Oneida man, passenger in police pursuit, files federal suit against Hazleton Police
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE - A Hazleton City Police car on Dec. 18, 2022.
HAZLETON – An Oneida man is suing the City of Hazleton and two police officers in federal court, alleging assault and battery after they tried to stop the vehicle he was riding in and the driver took off at a high rate of speed.
Isaias Garcia, of Oneida, filed suit Friday against the city, officers Jonathan Leonard and Eric Hernandez, Omar Vargas, of Hazleton, and Brian Castillo, of Hazleton.
In a complaint first filed in Luzerne County Court, Garcia says he was riding with Vargas in a Dodge Ram in the city on Feb. 8, 2020 when Leonard tried to pull Vargas over for alleged speeding and erratic driving.
Instead of stopping, Vargas sped up and fled at a high rate of speed through the city at over 80 miles per hour.
Hernandez joined the pursuit, “nearly causing a head-on collision” with the pickup truck, Vargas claims.
The pursuit continued at over 90 miles per hour out of the city and onto Interstate 81.
Vargas nearly wrecked the vehicle on the northbound on-ramp, spinning the truck, striking a police car before joining the Interstate southbound.
Hernandez and Leonard continued the pursuit, which reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.
“Despite being many miles outside of their jurisdiction, defendants Leonard and Hernandez continued their high speed pursuit,” the complaint says. However, the pursuit, at that point, was no more than five driving miles from Hazleton city limits and was heading back towards the city, as the complaint notes that Vargas took the McAdoo exit towards that borough.
The pursuit ended on that ramp, though, when Vargas lost control of the truck on the off-ramp’s hairpin turn and rolled into a snowy field.
Garcia was ejected from the car and launched through the air, landing face-down in the snow.
Garcia alleges that, although he was “visibly incapacitated,” the officers arrested him “without probable cause or reasonable suspicion.”
He says that officers forcefully grabbed ahold of his arms in an attempt to arrest him and were unsuccessful, at which point they deployed a stun gun.
Garcia suffered serious injuries in the crash and was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, where he underwent surgery on his hip and remained for two weeks.
He claims that, as a result of the crash and the officers’ actions, he sustained severe, serious, painful, and permanent injuries, including a broken femur, dislocated hip, and left rib fractures.
He also claims that the officers filed baseless charges against him without investigation, saying the officers did not try to determine who was driving the car, “aside from possibly interviewing Vargas.” Garcia also says the officers did not try to interview him or the vehicle’s owner, Castillo, to determine who was driving.
They instead, Garcia says, charged both he and Vargas with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, conspiracy to flee and attempt to elude police, conspiracy to commit reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit a hit and run, among others.
The charges against him, he says, were thrown out on Dec. 16, 2021, for lack of evidence.
Garcia goes on to call out apparent “unconstitutional policies and customs” of Hazleton Police, calling the pursuit reckless “knowing that there was a passenger in the vehicle.” He says neither officer faced disciplinary conduct for the incident.
“Upon information and belief, [Hazleton’s] policy and/or custom is to allow individual officers to make life or death determinations as to when to pursue or continue to pursue a fleeing vehicle,” the complaint says.
Against the officers, Garcia accuses them of false arrest, excessive use of force, malicious prosecution, assault, battery, false imprisonment, and negligence. In the negligence claim, Garcia claims his injuries were the result of their “carelessness, negligence, and recklessness” for their actions in the police pursuit.
The only count against Vargas — who Garcia accuses of driving while intoxicated, “endangering the lives of all involved and other drivers lawfully on the road”, and driving “at speeds far in excess of the posted speed limit” — is negligence. Vargas also had a suspended license and a “prior history of motor vehicle violations,” the complaint says.
Garcia also accuses Castillo, the pickup truck’s owner, of negligent entrustment, saying he should have known Vargas was “likely to use” the vehicle “in such a way that would harm another.”
He “should have known that Vargas was an incompetent driver or was intoxicated,” Garcia alleges in the complaint.
The complaint was filed by Dyller & Solomon Law, of Wilkes-Barre, on Garcia’s behalf.
The city has not yet responded to the suit.
Garcia seeks unspecified damages at trial.
About Author
