Trooper cleared in investigation of fatal wrong-way crash on I-95
By Associated Press
Published May 5, 2004
FORT LAUDERDALE - The Florida Highway Patrol's lead investigator in a 1999 wrong-way crash that killed two brothers was wrongly reprimanded by the agency for problems in the investigation, an independent arbiter has decided.
The arbiter found Cpl. Rodney Hylton innocent of all charges leveled against him by a highway patrol internal affairs investigation. He ordered that Hylton's five-day suspension be rescinded and his record be cleared.
"Since there is ample blame to be passed around, it is fundamentally unjust and unfair to make (Hylton) the scapegoat for this incident," arbiter Stanley Sergent wrote in a 30-page decision.
Lauderhill brothers Maurice Williams, 23, and Craig Chambers, 19, were killed in the November 1999 head-on collision with former FBI Agent David Farrall.
Immediately after the crash, the highway patrol publicly blamed the brothers for driving the wrong way on Interstate 95. The agency later changed its position - the brothers' car was in a correct lane when Farrall's out-of-control vehicle struck them.
Farrall last year was acquitted of DUI manslaughter, in part, jurors said, because the highway patrol mishandled the investigation.
Hylton's initial crash findings were based on erroneous information he received from other officers, and the crash scene was contaminated before he arrived, Sergent said.
"I feel my reputation was wrongly tarnished and now I feel that it has been somewhat restored," Hylton said.
