By John Zaremba The Boston Herald
BOSTON — Defense attorneys digging for something to latch onto in a Framingham cop’s driving past are being bashed by the police brotherhood who argue the bust of President Obama’s half-uncle on a drunken-driving charge is the issue, not the officer’s history behind the wheel.
The Framingham cop who arrested Onyango Obama has about a dozen on-duty accidents — mostly minor — to his name, according to records requested by defense attorneys and obtained by the Herald yesterday.
But the paperwork on patrolman Val Krishtal shows none of the dirt defense attorneys said they had hoped to dig up, and cops around the state are saying Obama’s legal team is barking up the wrong tree in its attempts to strike the Aug. 24 traffic stop by painting Krishtal as out of line.
‘It’s sort of discouraging’ said James Machado, a Fall River police sergeant and executive director of the Massachusetts Police Association. ‘I understand defense attorneys taking tacks and questioning police officers’ integrity, but to bring someone else’s record out there? What influence would that have on him doing his job? If you have motor vehicle violations, you can’t give out citations?’
Obama’s lawyers, P. Scott Bratton and William L. Harvey III, requested the records after learning Krishtal had totaled his cruiser in November, smashing into a stone wall en route to a report of shots being fired. They say the patrolman may have been driving too fast just before the Obama stop, in which the president’s uncle turned into traffic, cut the officer off and forced him to slam on his brakes.
‘We were told he had several motor-vehicle infractions that were investigated by his own department,’ Harvey said.
Obama’s blood-alcohol level was 0.14, police said. The lawyers plan to challenge that test as well at a hearing March 1.
The traffic reports they received yesterday detail 14 accidents involving Krishtal between 1997 and September 2011.
The documents, which do not include disciplinary proceedings, include a June 2000 crash in which Krishtal, doing 45 mph, skidded and slid into a sign on a traffic island near the interchange of Route 30 and Route 9; a September 2011 crash where he struck a pole after being distracted by the sound of tires screeching; and a July 2001 mishap where a pedestrian, while reading a piece of paper, walked into traffic and ran into the front left side of Krishtal’s cruiser, crawling at about 5 mph.
Framingham police Lt. Ronald Brandolini said Krishtal, 44, has to his knowledge never been disciplined for driving infractions.
Copyright 2012 Boston Herald Inc.
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