Driver charged with assault on cops, DUI is held for trial

In the early morning of June 28, a police officer responded to a crash scene in Frankford in which two other officers were injured, and rushed to the aid of one officer, who was lying in a pool of blood in the middle of Aramingo Avenue, the responding officer testified yesterday.

Officer Sharon Brambrinck told a judge that Officer George Higginson had been lying "in the middle of the road" and that one side of his face was "caved in."

"He was going in and out of consciousness," she said. "I wiped the blood on his name tag, and I saw it was George."

As she administered first aid to Higginson, Brambrinck said, she called for other officers to help another colleague in blue, Officer Richard Hayes, who was lying in a smashed-up red car. When Hayes later was removed from that car, "I did not recognize him," she testified. "His face was the size of a basketball."

Municipal Court Judge Georganne V. Daher yesterday held the driver of a Honda Ridgeline truck, John Cusick, 20, of Bristol, Bucks County, for trial on charges including aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence, in the injuries of the two officers.

After the preliminary hearing,Assistant District Attorney Kelley Hodge said that evidence shows that about 1 a.m. on June 28, Cusick rammed his truck into the back of the red car, which had been stopped by police, on Aramingo Avenue near Church Street.

The red car then struck the front of Hayes and Higginson's patrol car, which the officers had parked diagonally in front of the red car.

Police have said that Hayes and Higginson had stopped the driver of the red car, Edwin Alizea, 30, under suspicion of DUI.

Jose Marrero, Alizea's cousin, testified yesterday that he also had been in the red car, a Geo Prizm. At the time of the crash, he and Alizea were sitting in handcuffs in the back of the patrol car.

Marrero said he believed that when the truck hit his cousin's car, it also hit Officer Higginson, who "flipped in the air."

He also said Hayes "appeared to be dead" after the crash.

Marrero estimated that the driver of the truck - whose face he did not see - was traveling about 75 or 80 mph.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney William Ciancaglini, Marrero said he and Alizea had been smoking marijuana, "maybe two bags," before his cousin's car had been stopped.

Hayes, who was critically injured and taken to Aria Health-Torresdale, is now in a rehab facility, Hodge said after the hearing. Higginson is recovering at home, she said. Neither officer was at the hearing.

Hodge told the judge that Officer Paul Busch of the Accident Investigation Division interviewed Cusick and that Cusick admitted to driving the truck and to having drunk alcohol - Coors Light. Cusick also said he had taken Xanax the previous day.

A preliminary toxicology report showed that Cusick had a 0.068 blood-alcohol level and also had marijuana and Valium in his system, Hodge said. The limit at which a driver is considered to be legally drunk in Pennsylvania is 0.08 percent.

Cusick, who is out on bail, declined to comment afterward.

Ciancaglini said outside court that his client had not been speeding, but driving at the speed limit of 45 mph. He also said marijuana and Valium can stay in a body for 30 days, and contended that his client was "absolutely conscious and aware" while driving.

"He's a good guy. . . . He was incredibly shaken up by this," Ciancaglini said.

Hodge contended that Cusick was unfit to drive that night.

Separately, Alizea faces DUI, escape and criminal-mischief charges. Police have said that after the crash, Alizea kicked out a window of the cruiser and ran from the scene, but was quickly apprehended by an off-duty officer.