Mario Norwood was driving home from his UPS job shortly before midnight when a Gwinnett County Police Department patrol car whisked past him in the adjacent lane.
"It was going so fast, it rocked my vehicle," Norwood told a jury on Monday.
Moments later, that patrol car collided with a vehicle turning left, killing 52-year-old driver Willie Allen Sargent Jr. Sargent's widow, Faustina Sargent, is seeking a $5 million judgment in a wrongful death lawsuit against Gwinnett County in a civil trial that started this week.
An electrician by trade, Willie Sargent was turning into Uncle Woody’s Party Place when the wreck happened on Dec. 15, 2006. Sargent's widow has said she and her husband were each going out separately with friends that evening.
Norwood testified Monday that he pulled over and called 911 after witnessing the accident, but police never took a statement from him about what happened. Norwood said he was going "the speed limit or a little above," between 45 and 50 mph, when the officer passed him.
Attorneys for Sargent's widow say the officer, James Stoudenmire, was traveling approximately 78 mph, or nearly double the speed limit, after being dispatched as backup on a call to a gas station where a homeless man was turning himself in on an outstanding warrant. The patrol car's lights and sirens were not activated.
The call that Stoudenmire was on was classified as a "Code 3″ -- meaning that policy dictated the officer follow the posted speed limit and obey all traffic signs, Officer J.B. Murray testified. Murray was the first responding officer to the call involving the homeless man.
Murray also testified Monday about the policy when responding to incidents, which are classified based on the level of seriousness from Code 1 (being the most serious) to Code 3 (the least serious). He said an officer should know the policy like the back of his hand.
Gwinnett County Police Chief Charles Walters also testifed Monday. He watched still slides of videotapes made by accident investigators who attempted to recreate the conditions of the wreck.
Walters said that the department took the appropriate disciplinary action against Stoudenmire after the wreck.
"I thought it was a very serious policy violation," Walters said.
Stoudenmire at the time was 25 and a two-year employee of the department. He was reprimanded and suspended.
In 2009, Stoudenmire was arrested on a drunken driving charge while he was off-duty. The department let him resign in lieu of termination.
Stoudenmire did not take the stand Monday, but he is expected to testify during the trial, slated to last three to four days.
The county argued in legal briefs that Willie Sargent was guilty of negligence because he had consumed alcohol. Sargent was found to be at fault for failure to yield while turning left.
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