Handling of Fire Official's Crash Concerns Leggett

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett said yesterday that preliminary information about a four-car collision involving an assistant fire chief raises questions about how the case was handled.

"Some things in the case that have come to our attention, if all true, are somewhat disturbing," he said.

Leggett (D) declined to be specific but said he has asked his top aide, Timothy Firestine, to monitor the fire department's own review of the incident as well as an examination by the county's independent inspector general.

About 8 p.m. Nov. 30, Assistant Chief Gregory J. DeHaven sideswiped a police vehicle and another car and then hit a third vehicle on an entrance ramp to Interstate 270 near Rockville, police said. He was driving a fire department sport-utility vehicle and returning from a Washington Redskins game after participating in an honor guard.

A police officer at the scene said he detected a faint odor of alcohol on DeHaven, but two supervisor-level officers who arrived later decided against administering a breathalyzer test, saying he showed no signs of impairment, a police spokesman has said.

DeHaven was charged with failing to control his vehicle and fined $130. He is scheduled to appear in traffic court Jan. 16.

A short time later, DeHaven traveled to Rockville with another fire official and submitted to mandatory drug and alcohol tests, not as part of any criminal probe but as part of a review triggered by fire department rules.

Fire officials declined to release the results of those tests yesterday.

Paul Starks, a spokesman for the county police department, said the department plans no internal investigation. Deputy Chief Betsy Davis has said she is satisfied with the way officers handled the case, Starks said.

Police Chief J. Thomas Manger declined to comment yesterday, saying through a spokeswoman that it would be inappropriate to discuss the case while it is being reviewed by the county.

DeHaven, 50, is one of three assistant chiefs who share weekly responsibility for all fire and rescue operations in Montgomery. He has been reassigned to administrative duties until the fire department's review is completed, which could take a few weeks, Acting Fire Chief Richard Bowers said.

County regulations require alcohol and drug tests, under some circumstances, when police officers, firefighters and bus drivers get into accidents while operating county-owned vehicles, Firestine said. In the fire and rescue service, such tests are required for anyone in an accident that causes more than $2,500 in damage, Bowers said.

Montgomery State's Attorney John McCarthy, the county's chief prosecutor, said such test results are not generally usable in court. Had DeHaven submitted to a police-administered breathalyzer test at the scene, the results probably would have been admissible, he said.

But because the tests were conducted as part of a departmental review and were "something he was required to do as a condition of his employment," the results probably could not be used in court, McCarthy said.

Richard Finci, a defense lawyer not involved in the case, said that under Maryland law, police officers have substantial discretion to decide whether to request a roadside breathalyzer test. A driver who refuses to submit to a breathalyzer test can be charged.

"There have to be reasonable grounds. Odor of alcohol would be one element of reasonable grounds" but not enough to insist on a breathalyzer test, Finci said. Erratic driving could be another, as could be an inability to stand, walk in a straight line or undertake other tasks.