Courier-Journal Local News

 Crash of stolen police car kills DUI suspect, woman
                                        
 Friday, July 14, 2000
               
      
 By MEGAN WOOLHOUSE
 The Courier-Journal


 BRANDENBURG, Ky. --A handcuffed                    
 drunken-driving suspect left unattended in
 the back seat of a police car somehow got   
 into the driver's seat, then drove off at
 high speed and collided head-on with
 another car, killing the other driver and
 himself.

 Police were trying yesterday to determine
 how the suspect, Timothy Blackwell, 38, of
 Meade County, got around the Plexiglas      
 panel between the front and back seats of   
 the patrol car. A member of the other
 driver's family said police "made a
 mistake" in the events that led to Wednesday nights deaths.

 Blackwell drove the police car, with its lights flashing, about 7 miles on Ky.
 1638 before crossing the center line and crashing head-on into a car driven by
 Theresa Foltz, 57, of Brandenburg. Foltz was driving home from a visit with her
 daughter about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday.

 Sgt. Jeffrey L. Cox of the Brandenburg police said both drivers were killed
 instantly in the crash.

 Foltz's husband and children expressed shock and disbelief yesterday at the
 sudden loss of a vibrant woman who had been enjoying retirement.

 "She was kind of dazzling," Foltz's son, Paul Upchurch, said. "This not only took
 her life, it ruined the lives for the other people around her."

 Police said they're not sure how Blackwell got into the driver's seat of the
 police cruiser after he had been handcuffed.

 The incident began when off-duty jail guard Tim Embry found Blackwell's car in
 a ditch. Embry took Blackwell into custody and called police. Brandenburg
 police Officer john Miller, 29, who has been on the force nine months, arrived
 and took Blackwell into custody.

 "They handcuffed him behind his back, placed him in the cruiser and put the
 seat belt across him," Cox said. "He was secure when they left him."

 While both Embry and Miller were gone to search Blackwell's car, Blackwell
 managed to get into the front seat of the patrol car, Cox said. The patrol car
 locks from the outside, but Cox said he didn't know whether the Plexiglas
 panel between the front and back seats was shut.

 Cox said he was the first police officer to arrive at the crash. When someone
 who saw the crash pulled Blackwell from the cruiser, his arms were handcuffed
 in front of him, Cox said. State police are investigating the crash, he said.

 "The officer did everything he was trained to do," Cox said.

 Greg Howard, the director of training support at Eastern Kentucky University's
 police academy, said officers must sometimes leave prisoners unattended in
 running cars-- such as on very cold days or very hot days-- but it's not a
 good idea.

 Howard was a police officer until 1996 in Lexington. He said that years ago,
 before police cruisers had cages separating front and back seats, handcuffed
 prisoners were sometimes able to work their hands to their front, slip over the
 front seat and drive away in police cars.

 Cages have largely ended that, but Howard said leaving prisoners unattended
 in a running car isn't the best idea. "I still wouldn't do it unless I had to," he
 said.

 I think most people would say that it's not exactly a good way to do it, but
 there are times and circumstances that you really don't have any choice," he
 said.

 A Kentucky State Police spokesman, Lt. Kevin Payne, said that state police
 don't have a policy on the issue but that all marked state police cars have
 cages separating the front and back seats, which would prevent a prisoner
 from getting to the driver's seat.

 Members of the Foltz family said county officials told them that Blackwell had
 squeezed through an open Plexiglas panel in the police cruiser. Upchurch said
 Blackwell may have "stepped through" his handcuffs to get his hands in front
 of him.

 "Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, police do a perfect job," Upchurch said
 But "this time I don't think there's any question about it --they made a
 mistake."

 Upchurch and his sister, Bobby Ann pile, also of Meade County, were Foltz's
 children by her first marriage. Theresa, known as "Ann," met Forrest Foltz
 several years ago, and the two lived alone in retirement.

 http://www.courier-journal.com/localviews/2000/0007/14/0007l4dui.html                 

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