Lorain Police Sergeant on leave, under investigation for off-duty crash

LORAIN — A Lorain police officer is on paid administrative leave after allegedly leaving the scene of a vehicle crash that left two civilians' cars heavily damaged. Sgt. Eric Rivera was placed on leave late last week after reportedly crashing his police cruiser, a 2020 Dodge Charger, into two vehicles and a shed off Long Avenue and West Ninth Street shortly before 11 p.m. April 17. According to the crash report, Rivera was traveling southwest on West Ninth Street near its intersection with Long Avenue when he went left of center, hit a curb, drove through an empty lot and struck two parked vehicles, a burn barrel and a shed before backing up, turning around and driving back through the empty lot and onto West Ninth Street toward Lexington Avenue. Alcohol is listed as a suspected factor in the crash, but a blood alcohol test was not completed due to a lapse in time between the crash and when officers spoke with Rivera, Deputy Chief Mike Failing said. Sharon Parsons was asleep when she awoke to what she thought were gunshots, then sirens. She figured there was something going on in the neighborhood, she said, but did not expect it to be a crash right outside her front door. When she came outside she said neighbors started to tell her what happened: that a police cruiser had allegedly hit the back of her silver 2004 Honda Civic backed into its spot facing her duplex front door, then struck her son's 1996 Honda Accord parked next to it before hitting the shed, turning around and driving off. Witnesses told her the cruiser was swerving in the road before it hit the parked cars. "I dropped (my insurance) down to liability and then this happened," she said. "It was unbelievable — I'm like, are you serious that it was an off-duty police officer?" Parsons said initial witness reports that it was a police cruiser involved in the crash were dismissed by the officers who arrived at the scene. She said she found pieces of the cruiser in the empty field that separates her building's parking lot from Long Avenue the next morning, including some with the department's decals on them. She turned them over to Lorain police as evidence. Now she is left to deal with the city's insurance to handle repairs or a payout for her vehicle and her son's, she said. She said she has had little luck getting in contact with the police department's Traffic Bureau after a call to the city's insurance showed there was no incident in their system. "I was sick to my stomach when I saw it," she said. "Unbelievable was all I could say … (I would be) afraid to park on the street, but it never crossed my mind to fear for my car here in my driveway. I never had that feeling like my car's not safe." According to the report, Rivera's cruiser sustained "functional damage" to the right and undersides of the vehicle and was towed by Sugar Ridge Towing. Failing confirmed Rivera was off-duty at the time of the crash. Failing said an internal investigation has been assigned to the Office of Professional Standards. Some Lorain police officers are permitted to drive their cruisers home. Rivera will appear in Lorain Municipal Court on May 6 for charges of failure to control and failure to stop after an accident, both misdemeanors. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 President Isaiah Taylor did not return a request for comment. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com