State trooper indicted in fatal crash
He was charged with vehicular homicide. Two sisters, ages 17 and 19, died when his cruiser struck a minivan in Upper Twp.
A New Jersey trooper who allegedly ran a stop sign in September and killed two sisters when his police cruiser crashed into their minivan was indicted yesterday on charges of vehicular homicide.
Robert Higbee, 34, is accused of driving recklessly and causing the deaths of Jacqueline Becker, 17, and Christina Becker, 19, in Upper Township, Cape May County.
The indictments came exactly five months after the Sept. 27 crash, which Higbee said occurred while he was pursuing another motorist.
"The message I'd like to get out is I think justice is being served," the girls' mother, Maria Caiafa, said yesterday.
Family attorney Lewis April said: "We believe the wheel of justice turned very slowly," but the prosecutor "did the right thing."
The Becker sisters - Caiafa's only children - had been planning to stay overnight at their grandmother's house and borrowed her minivan around 10 p.m. for a quick run to get milk for the morning. The crash threw the sisters partially through the passenger-side window, and they died at the scene.
In October, Higbee received traffic tickets for careless driving and failure to stop, but Caiafa repeatedly questioned why no criminal charges were being filed.
Yesterday, Cape May County Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor defended the pace of the investigation.
"We did it in a fashion that was very thorough and painstaking to make sure we got the investigation right," Taylor said, noting that important data were only recently obtained.
During the first week of January, he said, data from the "black box" in Higbee's vehicle were retrieved and given to the Prosecutor's Office. The "black box" - technically called the Powertrain Control Module - contained 25 seconds of data showing vehicle speed, percentage of accelerator-pedal rotation, braking, engine RPMs, and other information up to the time of the crash, according to the prosecutor.
In addition, Taylor said, new witnesses came forward as late as Jan. 28.
Taylor would not provide other details of what the joint investigation by his office and state police had found, but he said Higbee had not been using his flashing lights when he hit the minivan.
Witnesses reportedly said Higbee had been traveling north on Stagecoach Road and approached the intersection at a high speed without lights or siren, April said. The minivan was being driven west on Tuckahoe Road by the younger sister.
Higbee, who suffered minor injuries, was chasing a violator and "never deliberately disregarded or endangered a human life," according to his lawyer, D. William Subin.
If convicted, Higbee faces five to 10 years in prison on each charge.
State Police Lt. Al Della Fave said Higbee remained on administrative duty yesterday, but would likely be suspended without pay.
David Jones, president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey, expressed sorrow for the sisters' deaths, but said Higbee had been doing his job within the law, including driving without flashing lights.
"Trooper Higbee's operation of his troop car, which resulted in this tragedy, is woefully devastating but not criminal," Jones said.
April said the sisters' family planned to sue Higbee and the New Jersey State Police.
But yesterday, Caiafa spoke of a "tragic situation all around" and did not voice bitterness toward Higbee.
"I can barely function. My children were my life," said Caiafa, 42. ". . . My every day is not about Trooper Higbee. It's about the loss of my children."
Caiafa, principal of Northfield Middle School, said her daughter Jacqueline was a senior at Ocean City High School and interested in law and international marketing. Christina was majoring in forensic psychology at Richard Stockton College and loved classical music and cooking, her mother said.
"My children were taught they could do anything," Caiafa said. ". . . There were endless possibilities."