Willie Miller foung guilty...

[Army Husker]

stupid stupid stupid...

 

Ex-Husker found guilty of criminal mischief

BY TODD COOPER

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 

 

 

Former Nebraska football player Willie Miller was found guilty this afternoon of criminal mischief in an April 8 road-rage incident involving an Omaha police officer.

 

Miller was found not guilty of first-degree assault.

 

 

Willie MillerHe will be sentenced in May. Criminal mischief is a felony punishable by up to five years probation or 20 to 60 months in prison.

 

 

You'd expect a Nebraska fullback to barrel into an opponent at a high speed.

 

Just not on a street. Or in a hulking Suburban. Or at an estimated 90 mph. Or with such force that the collision bends the frame of a Chevy Blazer.

 

An Omaha police officer testified Wednesday that that's what former Nebraska fullback Willie Miller did, ramming him from behind in a bout of road rage.

 

Prosecutors allege that Miller committed criminal mischief and second-degree assault - an intentional assault with a weapon - in the April 8 incident just north of 132nd and Leavenworth Streets. If convicted, Miller would face up to five years' probation or five years in prison on each count.

 

 

 

 

Photo of Larry Lacoma's Blazer hit by Willie Miller's Suburban.Miller's attorney, Beau Finley, said he doesn't dispute many of the facts of the case. But he does dispute the charges - saying they were overblown.

 

He told Douglas County jurors in opening statements Wednesday that prosecutors will not be able to prove that Miller, 30, had intent to injure Larry Lacoma, the Omaha cop who was off duty and in his Chevy Blazer at the time of the wreck.

 

"At no time am I going to ask you to approve of (Miller's driving)," Finley said. "I live in this town, and I don't like it. It was reckless. It was careless. It was negligent. But (the collision) was not intentional."

 

Here's how the "strange" events of April 8, as Finley called them, unfolded:

 

Lacoma, a 13-year police veteran and longtime traffic officer, said he was on West Dodge Road, headed to work, when he saw a blue Suburban traveling at high speed. The Suburban abruptly cut across traffic lanes and cut off two cars.

 

"I thought he was going to hit one of them," he said.

 

 

 

 

Photo of Willie Miller's Suburban.The Suburban exited West Dodge to turn north onto 132nd Street.

 

Lacoma said he exited to go south on 132nd Street. As he went past Miller's Suburban, he said, he honked his horn twice - a signal, he said, for Miller to "settle down."

 

Lacoma said he didn't look at, say anything to or gesture at Miller.

 

After he turned onto 132nd Street, Lacoma said, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw Miller's vehicle move into the south turn lane and turn south onto 132nd Street.

 

Lacoma, who was going about 40 to 45 mph, said he checked his rearview mirror several more times and saw Miller's Suburban closing on him.

 

"He was reeling me in," Lacoma said.

 

At that point, Lacoma said, he took a long look into his rearview mirror and estimated that Miller was going about 90 mph. When Finley challenged the accuracy of that estimate, Lacoma said he based it on his years of police work, during which he's written more than 2,000 speeding tickets.

 

As he approached the crest of a hill between West Dodge Road and Pacific Street, Lacoma said, he saw Miller's Suburban filling his rearview mirror.

 

He said he heard Miller's engine revving - another contention that drew scoffs from Miller's supporters in the courtroom.

 

Lacoma said he tried to relax his body and took his foot off the gas a half-second before Miller hit him.

 

"I literally took the foot off of the gas and 'bang,'" Lacoma said.

 

The rear-end collision sent Lacoma's Blazer swerving onto the shoulder, then over the center line before careening back into a van that had been 50 feet in front of him in the southbound lanes. Both Lacoma's Blazer and Miller's car traveled more than the length of two football fields before coming to rest.

 

The impact crumpled the back end and bent the frame of Lacoma's Blazer. The Suburban's front grill was caved in, its wheel wells collapsed around its tires.

 

Lacoma immediately got out of the Blazer and called 911.

 

As he did, Lacoma said, Miller got out of his Suburban and walked toward the off-duty officer.

 

Their explosive exchange was recorded on the 911 call.

 

Lacoma testified that Miller came at him - and Lacoma retreated, hollering at the 911 operator.

 

"I need help," Lacoma yelled. "He's comin' after me. He wants to see my (expletive) badge, he says."

 

Miller can be heard yelling in the background.

 

"Where's your badge?" Miller says. "Where's your badge at? Get your badge."

 

Lacoma: "So you're gonna ram me and wreck two cars? And maybe kill me when I go into oncoming traffic?"

 

Miller: "You hit your brakes."

 

Therein lies the central issue in the trial.

 

Lacoma said he never hit his brakes. And accident investigators found no skid marks.

 

In his rush to catch up to Lacoma, Finley said, Miller was accelerating up a hill.

 

He said Miller hit Lacoma only because Lacoma's vehicle suddenly lost steam.

 

Finley said Miller, who played for NU from 1996 to 2000, planned to swing his Suburban alongside Lacoma "to say, 'I didn't appreciate being honked at.'"

 

Prosecutor Michael Jensen, a deputy Douglas County attorney, said the collision was a heck of a way for Miller to show his displeasure.

 

And then, Finley said, the strange case got stranger.

 

Cindy Baumer, a nurse who lives near 132nd and Pacific Streets, said she was driving north on 132nd when she saw two men walking. A black man was walking forward, gesturing with his hands up. A white man was walking backward and talking on a cell phone, she said.

 

She said she watched as the black man, later identified as Miller, then took a swing at the white man, identified as Lacoma.

 

The white man ducked, she said, and the swing didn't connect.

 

Baumer started honking - honks that could be heard on the 911 call.

 

"He's charging me," Lacoma says, breathlessly, on the 911 call. "He's trying to kick my butt. Now he's coming after me again."

 

Finley said the only reason Miller swung at Lacoma was that Lacoma repeatedly ordered him to the ground. Lacoma, who missed two days of work with a sore neck and back after the wreck, had nothing on his clothing or his car to indicate that he was a police officer.

 

Finley said Miller resented being told to lie down.

 

As the confrontation intensified, Miller kept asking Lacoma to hand over the cell phone. Though Lacoma said he was retreating, Miller kept yelling, "Stop following me."

 

"You just rammed me," Lacoma hollered on the 911 call. "That's a felony assault, what you just did. That's a felony assault."

 

That will be for the jury to decide. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Miller's Thursday.

[DJR313]

Yeah, kinda stupid, but from the story it sounds like the cop had crossed the line and most likely co-erced the accident by braking suddenly. By no means am I condoning Willie, but there are plenty of cops in town that I feel are a little overzealous in traffic pursuit, IMO.