Officers Cleared Of Wrongdoing In Crashes

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There will be no charges in a couple of fatal crashes involving police officers in Berrien County in the past year. The Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office tells us it’s completed its investigations into a fatal crash during a pursuit on July 28 and another crash involving a police vehicle on September 16. In the first one, a deputy with the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department was trying to stop a suspected drunk driver on Niles-Buchanan Road near Niles when the driver crashed. The autopsy found 24-year-old David Bross of Three Oaks had a blood alcohol level of .17. Police determined Bross had been going 87 miles per hour at the time, and the prosecutor says the sheriff’s deputy was performing his duty and was not negligent. The other crash, on September 16, involved a Pokagon Tribal Police Department squad car responding to a domestic violence call in Cass County. The squad car was hit by a vehicle driven by 69-year-old Sherry Temple of Stevensville on M-140 at Territorial Road in Bainbridge Township. The prosecutor says the Pokagon tribal officer was acting reasonably and responsibly while heading to the domestic call.