California Firefighter Files Claim Over Highway Arrest
A California firefighter who was arrested at the scene of a motor vehicle accident last month because he did not move his engine when requested by California Highway Patrol (CHiPs) has filed an administrative claim with the state claims board alleging wrongful arrest. The claim is a required precursor to filing a lawsuit.
Firefighter Jacob Gregoire of the Chula Vista Fire Department was arrested on February 4, 2014 at the scene of a roll over on Interstate 805. Gregoire was retrieving a gurney when he was instructed by a CHiPs officer, Sergio Flores, to move his engine or be arrested. He informed Officer Flores that he would have to check with his captain at which point he was placed into custody, searched and handcuffed.
At the time the engine was in a blocking position for personnel attending to the patients. According to reports, the arrest did in fact interfere with the operations of personnel at the scene and delayed packaging of the patients. Supervisors from both the fire department and highway patrol resolved the issue on scene and Gregoire was released without being charged.
According to Gregoire, “I’m not looking for compensation, I’m looking for policy change” in terms of CHiPs agreeing not to interfere with firefighters at emergency scenes. His attorney, Dan Gilleon, alleges that besides committing a wrongful arrest, the CHiPs officer violated Gregoire’s Fourth Amendment rights in so far as the arrest constituted an unreasonable search and seizure.
I am certain if we asked Officer Flores about the situation, he would say what police officers before him have said under similar circumstances: “I arrested Gregoire because the law is the law and NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. He was told to move and he refused to move. Just because someone is a firefighter, does not entitle them to special treatment”.
Incidentally, California Penal Code 148.2 states as follows:
Every person who willfully commits any of the following acts at the burning of a building or at any other time and place where any fireman or firemen or emergency rescue personnel are discharging or attempting to discharge an official duty, is guilty of a misdemeanor:
- Resists or interferes with the lawful efforts of any fireman or firemen or emergency rescue personnel in the discharge or attempt to discharge an official duty.
- Disobeys the lawful orders of any fireman or public officer.
- Engages in any disorderly conduct which delays or prevents a fire from being timely extinguished.
- Forbids or prevents others from assisting in extinguishing a fire or exhorts another person, as to whom he has no legal right or obligation to protect or control, from assisting in extinguishing a fire.
I would point out, California Penal Code 148.2 does not make an exception for members of the California Highway Patrol. “Every person”…. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!!!! Including members of the California Highway Patrol.
Why has Officer Flores not been charged with violating Penal Code 148.2(1)? He clearly interfered with a firefighter in the performance of his duties. Is the California Highway Patrol above the law?
A simple solution to the ongoing problem of police officers needlessly arresting firefighters at emergency scenes is to hold the officers accountable for their actions. No one is above the law.
The cop will probably say he issued a “lawful order” as a “public officer” (see subsection 2) and try to weasel out of it that way.
I have also heard — heard, but NOT confirmed — that California state law specifically places CHP in charge at all highway incidents. If this is true, it would seem to completely exonerate the cop (legally, if not morally).
This and other recent incidents really point out the need for the cops, firefighters, EMS, and lawmakers to sit down together and iron out some of these messes. They happen often enough so no one can say, “I didn’t think about that.”
And, of course, the more we fight among ourselves, the worse we look to the public (like the two DC medics whose arguing caused their patient to bolt and take the subway to the hospital).
I used to work for an Indian reservation in central Arizona as an EMT and we used to have disputes with DPS on a regular basis. We had an incident one morning involving an off-duty paramedic on his way to work who had rolled up on a vehicle roll-over on the freeway, the accident occurred in the city of phoenix, when our medic rolled up there was a jeep on its roof with a female occupant inside critically injured, she was unable to maintain an open airway on her own. Our medic crawled inside her vehicle and was maintaining her airway while waiting for Phoenix for to arrive. DPS showed up on scene and instructed our medic to move his truck, our medic explained that if he let go of the patients airway she would not be able to breathe and refused to move his truck, he also explained that since he began treating the patient, he was obligated under AZ law to continue his treatment until the patient was turned over to an equal or higher level of care.
Once Phoenix arrived and took over patient care, the DPS officer arrested our medic on felony charges of failure to obey a lawful order from a police officer. This incident sparked off a major feud between our agency and DPS. Within hours of the incident the Governor of Arizona and the director of DPS were at our main station / administration offices. The Governor was not happy, this incident occurred right in the middle of negotiations between the tribe and the state over tribal gaming compacts in which the state was negotiating for a percentage of the casinos revenue. So you can imagine that the Governor was not at all thrilled that DPS was potentially throwing a wrench in these already troubled negotiations.
The ultimate outcome was that the charges were dropped by executive order, the DPS officer who was a Sergent, was demoted and a public apology was issued.
But that didn’t stop the feud from continuing. Several weeks later on mothers day, we had a major traffic accident on the interstate which significantly over ran our resources, we were short handed to begin with, we had ordered 6 helicopters to our scene and as the first helicopter was approaching the scene, our assist director asked DPS to close the 2 lane interstate to allow for a landing zone, the DPS Sargent initially refused saying that the flow of traffic on the interstate was more important, because of the holiday, than our need to land helicopters and that we needed to transport our patients to a landing zone off the freeway. Our assistant director explained to the DPS Sargent that we had only 5 ambulances and under Arizona law we were only obligated to transport the number of patients that we had ambulances for and our ambulances were not obligated to return to the scene, In total there were 11 patients, so DPS would be responsible for finding transportation for the remain 6 patients. So the Sargent told our assistant director that we had 2 minutes to get the helicopters off the ground. Our Assistant director instructed the first helicopter to land and shut down and that they would be the last off the scene, and once the helicopter landed, our assistant director told the DPS Sargent to F**k off, that she couldn’t open the freeway with a helicopter sitting on it. The DPS Sargent attempted to arrest our assistant director right there on the spot, but tribal police intervened and informed the DPS Sargent that she lacked the authority to arrest a Native American on a reservation and informed her that if she tried to arrest our assistant director that tribal PD would arrest her, and that they had every authority to arrest her where she lacked any authority to arrest him.
What a nightmare…
mr618
The fact the a police officer has a defense to a violation under subsection 2 does not give him a defense to a violation of subsection 1.
Walter
Very interesting story. I’d like to add those cases to my database. Please contact me with the details.
Yes under the way things are set up here in Calif.,
“Law Enforcement” has the scene control and the the Fire Department takes care of everything else
They usually would rather deal with non fire and EMS issues
One “Hot Dog” police Officer can upset the apple cart real easy
The Chippie should be reprimanded if for anything
Interfering with patient care as the Driver/operator is a Paramedic as well.
Above shows why everyone hates cop but love firefighter. Cop always use their power to hurt people, firefighter use their power to save people. I’ve shot so many cops in Grand Theft Auto, but never intentionally shot any firefighters.