04/08/2008

Associated Press

Two deputies will face no disciplinary action for not going into a field to investigate a car wreck in which the driver was found dead a day later, a police merit board ruled.

The DeKalb County Sheriff's Merit Board said in a statement Monday that the deputies "did not violate any policies or procedures of the department" in the February crash along a busy county road about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne.

The merit board, which met last week to review a report on the incident, concluded that no disciplinary action is warranted against DeKalb County Police Deputies Rick Short and Adam Friedel.

Short, Friedel and Garrett Police Officer Sam Smith responded Feb. 18 to 911 calls made by two motorists who said a car had veered off a county road and become mired in a field. The merit board holds authority over only Short and Friedel.

All three officers left without checking the vehicle, believing that someone had driven into the field intentionally to gather firewood east of Garrett.

The next day, the frozen body of Duane Squire, 66, of Avilla was found in the field.

Authorities determined that he had died of hypothermia after exposure to single-digit temperatures. His 14-year-old grandson, who has autism, was found huddled in the car nearby, cold but unhurt.

In a report issued March 31, two independent investigators from the Allen County Sheriff's Department concluded there was "a failure of duty, to locate or verify the vehicle that was in the field, by all three responding officers."

That report said Smith arrived first and told Friedel that his department had received a similar call a few weeks before about a car in the field and that the vehicle had permission to be there. Smith told investigators he could not tell from his vantage point whether the vehicle in the field that day was a car or truck, only that it was blue.

Short stopped the search after Smith and Friedel did, the report said.

"Officer Friedel stated that while thinking of all the possible scenarios regarding the vehicle, he did not feel right about clearing the scene, but ignored his gut feeling," the report said.

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Information from: The Evening Star, http://www.kpcnews.com