By Matt Lakin
Knoxville News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The trooper grabbed his gear and ran to the blazing car — not to save a life, but to put on a show.
“I got out and got my fire extinguisher just to make it look good,” Trooper Charles Van Morgan told Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators. “I knew he was dead, but you, you got to do that for the media and everyone else. I was just trying to put on a show.”
The wreck cost driver Gordon Kyle Anito his life, and the show could cost Morgan his job.
THP officials concluded Morgan deliberately drove past the Nov. 26 crash in North Knox County that killed Anito, 20, after a chase, didn’t stop to help and didn’t go back to the scene until another officer spotted the wrecked car in flames.
Anito’s parents filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Morgan and the THP in federal court this week. THP officials moved to fire Morgan but initially wouldn’t turn over the paperwork.
Officials finally released to the media Wednesday night the letter recommending Morgan’s termination.
The letter reveals Morgan’s bosses found no fault in his chase of Anito, who Morgan had clocked driving south on Emory Road at nearly 80 mph in a 40 mph zone just before 3:30 a.m. But video from his cruiser shows Morgan driving past Anito’s 2005 Subaru Impreza crumpled against a tree in a well-lit spot less than 15 feet from the road.
That video and the trooper’s contradictory stories led the THP’s commander to leave Nashville and personally visit the crash scene.
“It is my determination that Trooper Morgan did indeed see the crash scene and chose to ignore it,” Col. Tracy Trott wrote.
Morgan couldn’t have saved Anito, who died “instantly,” Trott wrote. The trooper didn’t know that when he drove by in silence.
“I’ve lost sight of the vehicle,” Morgan radioed to dispatch. “I’m going to terminate (the chase).”
Smoke had already begun to billow from the wrecked car. Trott, who drove the same route three times at the same speed under the same conditions, concluded Morgan couldn’t possibly have missed such a sight. Morgan instead drove another half-mile down the road and sat parked until the Knox County Sheriff’s Office broadcast a report of the wreck.
The trooper suddenly sprang into action and returned to a car in flames. He spent a few minutes spraying the blaze halfheartedly with a fire extinguisher and pulled a passer-by away from a rescue attempt.
“Let’s get back,” Morgan said. “It’s over.”
The trooper admitted he knew then that Anito had to be dead, but he wanted to “make it look good” to protect himself. He called a lawyer within five minutes.
“I could only guess to the reasons for Trooper Morgan’s actions,” Trott wrote. “I do know that he was involved in another pursuit where death occurred in previous years.” Morgan will face no criminal charges. Randy Nichols, Knox County district attorney general, reviewed the case and found no crime but “egregious” misconduct, Trott wrote.
Knoxville police had reviewed video from Morgan’s cruiser a little more than a year before Anito’s wreck. April Lawanna Keck, 22, died in an early-morning crash off Chapman Highway in March 2010 while leading Morgan on a three-mile chase at more than 100 mph. No one found her body until the next day.
KPD investigators determined Morgan couldn’t have seen Keck’s crash and filed no charges.
Copyright 2012 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.