Family decries charges against Warren police officer as preferential treatment
Cedric Hayden Sr. describes his feelings on the manslaughter charges against the officer who killed his son in a traffic crash.
(FOX 2) - Family of the two men killed in a traffic crash involving a Warren police officer blasted the decision by the prosecutor's office to charge the deputy with manslaughter, calling it preferential treatment.
James Burke, 28, was charged with two counts of manslaughter and two other crimes, the Macomb County Sheriff's Office announced Friday. He was arraigned in court almost two months after the fatal crash.
Standing alongside their attorney on Monday morning, friends, siblings, and parents of 34-year-old Cedric Hayden Jr. and 33-year-old DeJuan Pettis said investigators were "trying to sweep something under the rug" when they chose not to charge Burke with murder.
"If I personally would have done that and killed two officers, you would never see me again than in the penitentiary," said Cedric Hayden Sr.
Their attorney argued the charging decision and the manner in which Burke was arraigned was preferential treatment based on race. James Harrington cited a case earlier this year when a Black man was charged with murder after a fatal crash in Warren.
"He was given $1 million bond, and they put a tether on his leg. And now we have a white cop who kills two people driving like a maniac, and he gets $100,000 personal bond, and he isn't charged with second degree murder."
It's preferential treatment. And if that doesn't prove it, I don't know what will," Harrington added.
Burke and another officer were driving down Schoenherr on Sept. 30 when they struck a white Dodge Durango at a high rate of speed. The Macomb County Prosecutor's Office said the officer's decision to "drive at high speeds without lights or sirens undermines the safeguards meant to protect everyone on the road."
"They treated Schoenherr as if it was a race track - a race track," said Lakita Blakeney, who was Pettis' girlfriend at the time he died.
Family of Pettis and Hayden have filed two separate civil cases against the Warren Police Department and Harrington said they were laying the ground work for a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department for its policing practices along the city's border with Detroit.
That includes a $100 million suit.
Burke was also charged with a moving violation and willful neglect of duty. The decision was first announced on the sheriff's Facebook page on Friday afternoon.