Depew police, owners of stolen vehicle sued by Cheektowaga cop injured last year (2024)

The Cheektowaga police officer severely injured last year when he was hit by the driver of a stolen vehicle has filed a lawsuit against police from a neighboring department who were pursuing the driver.

Officer Troy Blackchief and his wife, Jennifer, have also taken legal action against the owners of the stolen vehicle, which police said was left unlocked.

The Blackchiefs filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the Village of Depew, the Depew Police Department and unnamed officers accusing police of violating rules, policies and state law in pursuing two stolen vehicles from Depew into Cheektowaga on Feb. 6, 2023.

Depew officers were “engaged in the high-speed pursuit” of two SUVs through Depew and into Cheektowaga, “all of which was in violation of and contrary to the written rules, policies and/or regulations” of the village and the Police Department, attorney John J. Fromen Jr. said in court papers.

The suit accuses police of being “negligent, careless, reckless, willful, wanton and grossly negligent in the ownership and operation” of police vehicles.

Blackchief was deploying “stop sticks” or “stop spikes” – devices put in the road to deflate tires – on Union Road near the Kensington Expressway at about 4:30 a.m. when the driver of the SUV that struck him “swerved to avoid the aforesaid stop spikes while being chased by police,” according to the lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court.

Blackchief suffered a skull fracture, a traumatic brain injury and other injuries.

Fromen declined to comment further on the two lawsuits through another attorney at his firm when contacted by The Buffalo News.

Depew officials have not been served with the lawsuit, Village Attorney Samuel Alba said. He declined to comment further.

The name of the driver, who was 17 at the time of the incident and is now 18, is being withheld by The News due to his age. He pleaded guilty May 20 to five felonies and will receive a sentence of 1⅓ to 4 years of incarceration. He is also going to receive youthful-offender status at his sentencing, scheduled for July 23.

Attorneys for the Blackchiefs in February also filed an initial lawsuit against the driver.

In that legal action, the Blackchiefs also sued Timothy J. and Renee I. Herbst of Depew. According to the suit, the Herbsts hold the title to a 2015 Jeep that struck Blackchief. Timothy Herbst is the registered owner of the vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

Suing the owners of a vehicle that was stolen is not typical in injury cases. Under state law, a vehicle owner is liable when the driver has permission to use the vehicle.

In an interview with The News after the incident, Renee Herbst said, “I just feel guilty for being so careless. I feel like that was careless on my part, and now somebody is suffering.”

She also replied to a post in a West Seneca-centric Facebook group by a Blackchief’s father-in-law asking for prayers.

“I feel absolutely terrible my jeep was the one stolen that hit your son-in-law. He’s in our prayers,” she wrote.

Renee Herbst said she lives next door to her daughter, who owns the second SUV that was stolen.

Herbst previously told The News both stolen SUVs were left unlocked.

“It’s not your fault,” Blackchief’s father-in-law, Raymond Nowicki, replied on Facebook to Herbst.

Rachel A. Emminger, attorney for the Herbsts, did not respond to a request for comment.

On the day of the incident, Cheektowaga Police said the white 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee that struck Blackstreet was found abandoned at Kensington Avenue and Century Road in the town.

Buffalo police found the second SUV involved in the pursuit, a maroon 2019 Jeep Cherokee, later that day on Nicholson Street in the city’s University Heights neighborhood.

The two vehicles were stolen about 30 minutes before Blackchief was struck, Cheektowaga Police previously said.