Sloppy police work frees man accused of running down cop<br><br> - Haaretz

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Last update - 07:20 18/09/2007

Sloppy police work frees man accused of running down cop

An Ilut resident who was charged with an astonishing series of driving violations and obstruction of justice in 2005 was acquitted Monday in Nazareth District Court because police investigators did a sloppy job of gathering evidence against him.

In her ruling, Judge Esther Helman explained that the bungled police investigation had undermined Abdel Halim Abu Musa's ability to mount a defense, leaving her with doubts regarding his culpability.

"That doubt should work in favor of the accused and lead to his acquittal, and that is my instruction," the judge wrote.

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The offenses were committed while Musa was allegedly driving his car. Police officers spotted someone driving recklessly through the streets of Upper Nazareth and signaled him to pull over, but he fled. According to the indictment, the driver ignored repeated orders to stop his car, continued driving on the wrong lane, against traffic, and forced a bus and a car off the road. Then he passed vehicles by crossing a continuous line, forcing another car to veer from its lane.

When the patrol car caught up with him and blocked his path, an officer got out and signaled to the driver to turn his engine off and get out. Instead, the man threw the car into reverse and sped backward, crashing into a vehicle behind him. Then he shifted into forward gear and drove straight toward the officer, who jumped aside and fired two warning shots in the air. The driver got away, but the police managed to jot down the car make and plate number.

The driver was accused of coming to the police station two hours later and falsely reporting his car stolen. He claimed he had been at home during the time of the incident, after his car had been stolen from the side of the road between Ilut and Nazareth, where he had left it with the motor running to go and fill a bottle with water from a nearby spring because the car had overheated.

In her ruling, the judge said that the identification of the accused was highly questionable. Furthermore, the police statement taken from him indicated a superficial interrogation: Musa was not asked any questions to clarify his replies when these were not sufficiently explicit, and he was not given a chance to present an alibi. The information he did provide was never checked, therein harming his defense. No attempt was made to confirm or refute Musa's claim that he had called the police to report the car theft during a time that clears him of suspicion, a printout of his cellphone log was not obtained and the police switchboard was not checked for evidence documenting such a report.

Had Musa's version been verified immediately with the police, the judge said, it could have been confirmed by obtaining a printout of his outgoing phone calls, which can no longer be done because too much time has elapsed.

Police also failed to look into whether there is indeed a spring near where Musa said he had stopped his car, and did not search for the bottle he said he had used to fill the radiator.

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