Off-Duty Officer Car Crash Prompts The Probe
TRAVERSE CITY -- The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office is investigating two of its own deputies.
The department is looking into whether or not the deputies properly handled a fiery, single car crash involving an off duty Traverse City Police Officer.
Officer Joseph Soffredine, a Traverse City Police Officer, lost control of his car on February 7, at 3:20 a.m. on Cedar Run Road. The son of the former Traverse City Police Chief, who currently serves as a city commissioner, told deputies his car slipped on ice. Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s deputies Robert Sillers and Mark Noffke responded to the single car crash. They did not cite him for the crash, nor did they cite him for driving with expired license plates. Soffredine was not asked to submit a breathalyzer test for alcohol.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff Tom Bensley says "Last Friday we started looking into how the accident was handled by our officers. I can tell you we handle many accidents and a lot of times citations are issued; a lot of times they aren't. We are looking into accident itself, the officers actions at the scene, and whether they did anything wrong."
Soffredine was kept in a patrol vehicle while the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department arrived to put out the fire in his car. They never spoke with him.
Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department Chief, Patrick Parker says "Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. In this case we were told the driver was uninjured and so we just went to fire fighting."
Sheriff Bensley says the investigation will involve interviewing the deputies and anyone else that was on the scene to find out if the deputies acted appropriately.
Sheriff Bensley says "We want to know what they did if they did something wrong we'll have to deal with it. They might have done the right thing. They aren’t perfect, but we expect them to do right thing."
Traverse City Police Chief, Michael Warren tells 7&4 that he talked to Officer Soffredine about his expired plates.
Authorities involved are still on duty while the investigation continues.
