Claire Galofaro
Charges against a high school
teacher accused of killing a woman while driving drunk were dismissed this week
— a month after a police officer was indicted and declared he would no longer
help prosecute the dozens of suspected drunken drivers he arrested.
Christopher Purcell, a longtime
Iroquois High School teacher, was arrested in August 2012 by Louisville Metro
Police Officer Christopher Thurman.
Thurman, 37, specialized in DUI
enforcement but was indicted last month on accusations that he bilked taxpayers
for more than $10,000 in phony overtime pay. He is charged with official
misconduct and theft by deception, facing the possibility of a decade in
prison.
His attorney told the county
attorney and the commonwealth's attorney that Thurman will assert his Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify in more than
100 pending criminal cases he investigated. Most are misdemeanors, prosecuted
by the county attorney. But several, including the case against Purcell,
include felony murder and manslaughter charges.
The drunken driving and
manslaughter charges against Purcell relied on Thurman's word, said Leland
Hulbert, a spokesman for the commonwealth attorney's office. Purcell's
blood-alcohol content level wasn't far above the legal line, and the case
hinged on Thurman's testimony about how the suspect performed on field-sobriety
tests.
Prosecutors decided to dismiss
the charges earlier this week in what Hulbert said was a frustrating decision
for prosecutors and the family of the woman killed.
"There's not a lot we can
tell the victim's family," he said. "They feel like the system
cheated them, the system failed them. And there's not a lot of comfort we can
give them."
Purcell was allegedly driving
drunk in August 2012, when he crashed into a motorcycle near Strathmoor
Boulevard and Bardstown Road.
Tracey Blevins, 31, died at the
scene.
Thurman is accused of stealing
more than $10,000 he did not earn between January 2011 and September 2013. He
had pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors are evaluating his
other cases to determine whether they can pursue them without his cooperation.