From Brian's 1st Amendment blog:
Criminals You Are Paying...
New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association Holding Parties At Country Club And Holiday Inn To Benefit State Trooper Who Ran Stop Sign And Killed Teen Sisters
NEW JERSEY – The New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association is holding parties at the Frog Rock County Club, Hammonton, New Jersey and Stafford Township Holiday Inn (aka: Manahawkin/Long Beach Island Holiday Inn), Manahawkin, New Jersey. The parties are to benefit State Trooper Robert Higbee, who ran a stop sign, killing two teen sisters.
TEEN SISTERS KILLED BY STATE TROOPER RUNNING STOP SIGN
STATE TROOPERS HOLDING PARTIES TO BENEFIT TEEN’S KILLER
The two teen sisters left home to buy milk. An eye-witness to the killing stated that Robert Higbee accelerated towards the intersection instead of breaking for the stop sign.
STATE TROOPER ROBERT HIGBEE – TEEN’S KILLER
Bad Cop News readers are encouraged to call the Frog Rock County Club (609) 561-1876 and Stafford Township Holiday Inn/Manahawkin/Long Beach Island Holiday Inn
( 609) 481-6100, asking for management, and tell them what they are actually supporting.
Anyone with balls can call the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association: In NJ: (888)4NJ-SPBA, (732) 636-8860 or fax (732) 636-0172. The Assoc’s president is Michael J. Madonna, vice president is Anthony F. Wieners.
The association’s appears to be “helping those who help others!” – Now they are supporting a killer…
31
Mar
Featured On 20/20: ‘High-Speed Chase’ Leads to Tragedy - Sisters Killed By New Jersey State Trooper Robert Higbee Running Stop Sign - Cop Says He Was Chasing Someone, Witness At Scene Says Higbee Wasn’t, ‘He Puts His Foot To The Floor, And He Just Accelerates’ Before Running Stop Sign…
CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY – Their names were Christina and Jacqueline Becker. Their lives were just beginning — and then they were over in an instant.
Christina and Jacqueline were the only two children of Maria Caiafa, and the youngest of four generations of women in a close-knit, big hearted Italian family from Cape May County, N.J. Jacqueline was 17, a senior in high school, and 19-year-old Christina was a junior in college. But their lives came to a tragic end on Sept. 27, 2006.
The girls were staying with their grandparents, Geraldine and Cesar Caiafa. Around 10 p.m., they went to pick up milk at the local convenience store. Jacqueline and Christina were driving a half-mile back to their grandparents’ house, when another driver was tearing down the road, traveling at least 60 miles an hour, nearly double the speed limit.
Robert Taylor, who was stopped on the other side of the road with his son Michael witnessed what happened next. “I saw a car coming at extreme speed,” he said. “And I was just thinking to myself, ‘When is he going to slow down?’ And he gets 20 yards from the intersection, and he puts his foot to the floor, and he just accelerates.”
The car sped through the stop sign and exploded into the driver’s side of Jacqueline and Christina’s minivan. The minivan was hit with such force it was pushed at least 130 feet up the road. The Taylor’s car was also destroyed, but somehow they were barely hurt.
‘I Think It’s My Van’
In a bizarre coincidence, Cesar and Geraldine Caiafa drove by the accident scene, and when they arrived home, their minivan wasn’t in the driveway. Cesar suspected that something was wrong, so the Caiafa’s decided to call their daughter Maria — the girls’ mother. She rushed to the scene, and all three of them stood waiting.
“I looked at the cop. I said, ‘That van that’s up the road there, I think it’s my van. Can I just go look at it?’” Cesar said.
The family said they were left to wait for three hours, and weren’t given any information about their girls. There were two bodies covered by sheets, laying next to the mangled minivan. In their hearts, the Caiafa’s knew the tragic truth.
Maria’s world was instantly shattered. “I want to actually just curl up in a ball and die,” she said. “But I can’t, because I feel like every minute I have to speak out and fight for my children.” Her only two children were gone, and the family had no idea who had been driving the car that killed them, until they picked up the newspaper the next morning.
Police Pursuits
The family said they were shocked to find out that the man who ran the stop sign was a New Jersey state trooper named Robert Higbee. Higbee claims he was going after another driver who was speeding.
The trooper was given a ticket for running a stop sign and assigned to desk duty pending a state criminal investigation. But from the beginning this case has been more than just a tragic accident. The sisters’ deaths have raised questions about the broader issues of high-speed police pursuits.
“The issue is that when you are driving in a car, you have to abide by the laws,” said Maria. “We have to act with caution and concern for the people that are on the road.”
More that 300 people a year in the United States are killed in high-speed police chases. One third of them are innocent bystanders. But cops involved in high-speed chases are rarely criminally charged.
Maria said that months passed by, and she was kept in the dark about the investigation. “To sit back and try to cover it up and make it go away is astounding,” she said.
Desperate for answers, Maria hired an attorney to take legal action against Higbee and the state of New Jersey. The Taylors — the other victims in the accident — say they too plan to sue.
The Scene of the Crime
To try to understand what happened that night, “20/20″ went back to the scene.
Four eyewitnesses to the accident raise a lot of troubling questions about what happened that night. All four say that Higbee was not using his siren or his flashers, and question whether he was really going after a speeding driver.
Anthony Cingaglio was in a parking lot across the street from the accident. “When the trooper went by, it was like a white flash,” he said. Cingaglio said the only speeding car he saw that night was the trooper’s.
The state of New Jersey insists there was a speeding driver whom they questioned, but the driver turned down our request for an interview. “20/20″ also wanted to get some answers from Higbee, but he too declined to go on camera because of the ongoing investigation.
Justifiable Risks?
“We believe that the risks of speeding in this case were justifiable risks,” said Bill Subin, Higbee’s attorney. “We haven’t concealed any fact,” he said. “My client cooperated fully with the state police and the county prosecutor’s office in the investigation.”
David Jones, the president of the New Jersey State Troopers’ Fraternal Association, is also speaking out on Higbee’s behalf. “Because this involves a trooper, people are reading between the lines that there’s something going on here,” he said. “All these people, the attorneys and everybody else who are putting forward this position that there is a cold-hearted conspiracy out there, there’s no validity whatsoever to it.”
But why wasn’t state trooper Higbee using his lights and siren? Jones said he was “closing the distance” with the speeder — which he said is one step before activating an official police pursuit.
“There isn’t a single thing going on outside of the protocols or outside the standards,” Subin said. “Nor is there anything criminal here.”
But that’s not the way the grand jury saw things. On February 27 of this year, five months to the day since Christina and Jacqueline were killed, Higbee was indicted on two counts of vehicular homicide. He was suspended without pay, and if convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.
Higbee pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, and while in the court, he asked if he could speak to Maria. The two hugged each other and talked briefly. Higbee has since rejected a plea agreement, insisting that he will prove his innocence.
‘I Lost My Life That Night’
Maria hasn’t gone back to the house she shared with her two daughters. “I tried once or twice, going back, but I get hysterical. I can’t deal with it. It represents everything that I lost. And I lost my life that night,” she said.
Cesar Caiafa also said the family is having a hard time dealing with the tragic loss of his granddaughters. “It’s not easy at all,” he said. “We sit down at the table, and we don’t see the kids. And before you know it, everybody starts crying.”
Nothing will bring her daughters back, but Maria and her family believe that if Higbee is found guilty, cops might think twice before they speed on civilian roads.
And that, said the family, might spell justice for Christina and Jacqueline.
Tags: Bad Cop News, Bad Government News, NEW JERSEY31
Mar
Six Monroe County Pennsylvania Corrections Officers, Cook Charged In Bizarre Prison Sex Scandal
SNYDERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA — Six Monroe County Correctional Facility employees were charged Friday with having illegal sexual contact with inmates, and a seventh will be charged Monday.
Former corrections officer Yvonne Lockard arrives at district court in Snydersville Friday morning. Police said that Lockard, 33, had convicted murderer Aaron Tyson ejaculate into a container and then inserted his semen into herself in an effort to get pregnant.
Tags: Bad Cop News, PENNSYLVANIA
posted by The_SRV at 3:23 AM
6 Comments:
I think what you are doing is really important! There must be more information that gets out to the public so Trooper Robert Higbee does not get off for the killing of both Jacqueline and Christina Becker!
there was no speeder they police made it up.... they never even gave a ticket to the alleged speeder Wigglesworth that Higbee was suppose to have been chasing....all the people that were on the road and witnessed the accident said Higbee was speeding and ran through the stop sign and he was chasing noone.... he had no lights and no sirens .... he killed two girls and he should be sitting in jail without bail while he awaits trial...
Higbee needs to go to jail like anyone else would in this situation...... why is it taking so long!!
Higbee walked out of the car without a scratch and he said that he doesnt't know why he went through the stop sign? what was in his body at the time? drugs? did they do a toxicology on Higbee or did they intentionally forget to do one? hmm.... check it out and see what you find! Higbee knows he belongs is jail and all his fake sorrow is to simply save his ass! he killed 2 teenagers while in a NJ state troope vehicle and he needs to go to jail for a minimum of 10 years !!! I recommend 25 to life !
regarding trooper higbee:
haven't you people ever heard the word:MISTAKE????
do you think a crappy cop would get the concern and compassion that is demonstraighted in every fund raising event for this trooper?
NOT A CHANCE. this guy was not doing something wrong. he made a mistake. yes, it's devestating, yes, horrible. trooper higbee is the one who will suffer forever. Along with maria and her family. he's the one who will have to look at himself in the mirror day by day.
when it comes to police, people get bloodthirsty and want the cop to be strung up for days.
a tragedy like this will have no end. quit lining up your stones, ladies and gents. drunk drivers get off with NO JAIL TIME and they're intentionally out to do harm.
consider this: you never know what will happen in your own lives. the next time, this could be you.
I am so delighted to come onto your blog, I am only disapointed that I cam upon so late. I am delighted to see someone speaking out against Trooper Higbee and his supporters. I am disgusted by the droves of people who pander to this murderer because of the fact that he is a state Trooper. I have had numerous requests that I show my support for Trooper Higbee, sadly I have not had one to show my support for teh mother who was left behind with only misery. I keep hearing that Trooper Higbee was a "Good Cop" and a "Nice guy" and having not spoken to the man in over 20 years I certainly will not dispute that, however I do not believe that excelling at your job or have a kind word for everyone you see gives you free reign to drive at dangerously reckless speeds and extinguish 2 lives, if that were the case I would be given a nod and thumbs up everytime I went 35 miles over the speed limit. That is not the case there for I drive the speed limit and obey the laws of the road as I would expect that the police officers who salaries my tax dollars pay do. I keep hearing about how Trooper Higbee deeply regrets his actions, and I have no doubt he does, I do not believe the man is a sociopath, I believe he is someone who used his position in the community to exercise poor judgment which resulted in the murder of 2 yound girls and the ruination of a life, b/c I am positive that every breath the mother of those girls takes for the rest of her life will be arduous and painful. He has taken her reason to smile, her very reason to live and for this we should allow him to quietly work a desk job until retirement? Murder is murder black & white but luckily for Trooper Higbee our judicial system has seen fit to put crimes on a ladder so he can be charged with involuntary manslaughter, though in myopinion he would be getting off easy, he was driving at 2 times the legal speed limit, as someone with extensive training he knows how perilous of an act that is. I know that were I to do the exact same thing that Trooper Higbee did I would be in a jail cell and the only support would be my family. We put police officers on a pedestal b/c their job is so dangerous and I do believe we owe the police respect when they have earned it. I do not believe that b/c you "bleed blue & gold" you automatically get a free pass to spil someone else's redblood all over the street where they live.
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