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The off-duty county police officer cited for speeding and negligent driving when his cruiser struck and injured a 12-year-old Clarksburg boy in April was found not guilty of negligent driving Tuesday in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville, his lawyer said.
A formal internal investigation on the incident will now begin, county police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks said Tuesday. He would not comment on the outcome of the driving citations.
Officer Jason R. Cokinos, 24, who graduated from the police academy in 2006 and is assigned to the 3rd District in Silver Spring, pled guilty to speeding, for which he was sentenced by Judge William G. Simmons to $185.50 in fines and fees, said Cokinos' attorney James F. Shalleck.
"He's always admitted to speeding," Shalleck said.
A police report issued in August following the Collision Reconstruction Unit's investigation revealed that Cokinos was traveling nearly twice the posted speed limit on Stringtown Road when his cruiser struck Luis Jovel Jr., who was standing near the double yellow line.
The speed limit on the portion of the road where the collision occurred is 30 mph. Cokinos was traveling 56 mph, police said.
The report included a conclusion by the Collision Reconstruction Unit that if Cokinos had been traveling the speed limit, the collision would not have occurred.
In a statement included in the report, Cokinos said, "I thought that the speed limit was 40 mph in that area. I thought I was traveling the speed limit."
No criminal charges were filed as a result of the Reconstruction Unit's investigation.
Jovel remains at a rehabilitation center. After he was struck, the boy was flown by helicopter to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in critical condition. His neck was fractured in the collision, according to the collision report.
