LITTLE ROCK — An internal Little Rock police investigation into why investigators and Assistant Chief Carlos Corbin have different versions of what happened in a crash that totaled Corbin’s cityowned vehicle is nearly finished.
Chief of Police Stuart Thomas, who launched the administrative investigation, said the file appeared to be complete and was sitting on his desk Wednesday morning but he didn’t know how soon he would sign off on it.
Calling it an ongoing investigation, Thomas wouldn’t comment on the circumstances that led Corbin to tell police Oct. 2 that he had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident, when a subsequent investigation found that he had crashed his car into a tree at Interstate Park.
Corbin has not been placed on administrative leave, and Thomas said he didn’t think the 28-year veteran will be put on leave once the investigation is complete.
Corbin, who was at work Wednesday, could not be reached for comment.
According to the report taken by patrol officers when the crash occurred, Corbin, 48, said he was driving south on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive about 1:50 a.m. when an “unknown SUV type vehicle” ran a stop sign at an “unknown” intersection and crashed into the driver side of his vehicle.
Corbin, who has been an assistant chief since 2001, told the officers that he tried to follow the sport utility vehicle, which he could only describe as “dark in color.”
But because of the condition of his car, Corbin could only follow the vehicle as far as West 33rd Street and Arch Street, reports said. That intersection is a few blocks from Interstate Park.
After an adjustment from an insurance appraiser, the car was totaled, and the Arkansas Municipal League wrote a $14,500 check to the city of Little Rock, according to the Municipal League Assistant Director Linda Montgomery.
“[Appraisers] didn’t know there was an ongoing investigation. They assumed [Corbin’s report] was it, that the claim was over,” Montgomery said.
But Corbin’s account wasn’t it, according to the investigators Thomas instructed to start an internal investigation a day after the accident.
“When we took a look at [the initial report] and took a look at the damages, it did not appear consistent,” Thomas said.
Police were unable to find evidence of a collision on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that matched Corbin’s account.
When asked how detectives tracked the crash to Interstate Park, roughly half a mile away, Thomas didn’t go into detail.
“That’s just what they do,” Thomas said.
According to crash investigation reports, Corbin’s car was going 16 miles per hour when it slammed into a cedar tree more than 200 feet west of Arch Street and 42 feet from the Interstate Park curb line.
Investigators found that just a few seconds before impact, the car had been traveling at least 40 mph.
Thomas said Corbin’s car went off the road and into some grass before overcorrecting back on the road, which turned the car sideways and ultimately sent it into the tree.
When police met up with Corbin’s car in the 3300 block of South Arch Street, officers said, he appeared unharmed although he was “shaken up.” The report said he didn’t require a sobriety test.
Although Thomas said the crash investigators’ findings are sound, he said he couldn’t explain the discrepancy between his detectives’ accounts and his assistant chief’s — at least not without compromising the investigative file.
“I will say it is inaccurate,” Thomas said of Corbin’s account, but he said it’d be “premature” to say his next in command had falsified a police report.
“If a report is wrong or inaccurate, to suggest that it’s false would [imply] a culpable mental state,” Thomas said.
When asked why Corbin was out at Interstate Park after midnight, on a Sunday, Thomas said such details were not releasable until the investigation was finished.
“There are many possibilities as to why that [discrepancy] occurred,” Thomas said. “But I can’t infringe on any information contained in the [investigative] file.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/27/2011