A Memphis judge left a legal path open Friday for two Arkansas police officers to avoid trial in the shooting deaths of two motorists they chased into Tennessee.
Officers Tony Galtelli and John Gardner of the West Memphis, Ark., police department are accused of reckless homicide in the death Kelly Anne Allen, 44, a passenger in a car the officers chased into Memphis following a traffic stop in July 2004.
Legal disputes have prevented prosecutors from taking Galtelli and Gardner to trial for more than two years and the ruling from Judge John Fowlkes of state criminal court was another setback for them.
Fowlkes said prosecutors wrongly rejected the officers' request for pretrial diversion, a legal procedure that lets first-time offenders avoid trial and clears their records after up to two years of good behavior.
Fowlkes said the officers meet the basic requirements for diversion set out in Tennessee law.
Prosecutor Tom Henderson said his office would wait for Fowlkes to issued his decision in writing next month before deciding if it would be appealed to a higher court.
Defense lawyer Steve Farese said an appeal would be a long shot.
"I think everybody is tired of riding this horse. This horse is not moving," Farese said. "It's feet are straight up in the air."
Another Memphis judge ordered prosecutors to grant diversion for the officers in 2006 and they completed a two-year diversion program that included anger management counseling.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled early this year, however, that the Memphis judge should have let prosecutors reconsider their rejection decision and review the legal grounds for it.
Fowlkes said he saw nothing new from prosecutors that would warrant a ruling in their favor.
Prosecutors contend Galtelli and Gardner were out of control when they and other officers from West Memphis, a small town across the Mississippi River, chased a vehicle that sped off after being stopped because of a broken headlight.
Pursuing officers who managed to stop the car in Memphis said they were forced to open fire when the driver, Donald Rickard, 44, tried to drive off again and run over them.
Rickard and Allen died in the gunfire.
Galtelli and Gardner, who remain on the West Memphis force, declined comment after the hearing.
West Memphis Police Chief Robert Paudert said the officers followed departmental rules throughout the chase and shooting.
West Memphis officers will not be restricted from crossing state lines, Paudert said, but new chase procedures have been set up since the fatal shootings.
"If a pursuit occurs in West Memphis, both bridges will be blocked by West Memphis police and state troopers," he said, "hopefully preventing the possibility of going back into Memphis."
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