A Dad Sides With Cop Against Dirt-Biker

As two-wheeled thrill-seekers rev up their engines for another season of mayhem on New Haven streets, a dirt-bike rider and a cop who arrested him blamed each other in court Tuesday for causing a crash — a factual dispute that may be settled by a dad who watched the vehicles collide from the curb.

The city is fending off a civil lawsuit filed by a 39-year-old motorcyclist accusing a police officer of driving recklessly and crashing his cruiser into the dirt bike. Tuesday’s trial offered an unusual chance for a citizen and a cop with divergent views of a dangerous road collision to put their sides to a jury years after the fact.

Both the officer, Daniel Conklin, and the dirt biker, Keith T. Manson, took the witness stand Tuesday in Judge Denise D. Markle’s courtroom at 235 Church St. In a few hours of testimony, they laid out two divergent accounts of the collision to an six-person jury (with two alternates) — before Mario Notareno, a father who witnessed the crash, gave his side.

Wednesday the lawyers are scheduled to present their closing arguments before jurors receive their final instructions and begin deliberating. (Update: The jury cleared Conklin.)

The quick trial took place on a warm spring day, not unlike the morning five years ago, when Manson took out his dirt bike, pulled a mask over his face, and zoomed around Quinnipiac Meadows.

On April 1, 2013, around 10:45 a.m., Manson drove his bike down a hilly section of Flint Street. Notareno, who was stepping into the street with his 8‑month-old son in a stroller, heard the bike’s engine chopping and took a few steps backwards toward the curb, unsure if Manson would stop.

Conklin, meanwhile, steered his cruiser onto Flint Street. Noticing the kid at the corner, he swung wide, pulling into the left-hand lane.

As Manson traveled east down the hill, Conklin headed west up it. Manson rode down the middle of the street; Conklin drove in the wrong lane. Both said they had nowhere to go.

Conklin slowed to a stop. Manson didn’t. They collided.

The dirt bike’s tire hit the police car’s front fender. The impact threw Manson over the handlebars onto the cruiser’s hood. The dirt bike’s back wheels flipped up. After the crash, Manson settled on the ground near the police cruiser’s tires.

Notareno, a Guatemalan school-bus driver who lives a few doors down on Weybosset Street, said in court Tuesday that Manson was to blame. In court, he said he hadn’t signed off on an investigator’s report because he wanted to testify in person.

“I had a first-class view that morning, watching everything,” Notareno said, after being sworn in. ​“I mean, very close.”

Alyssa Torres, the city’s assistant corporation counsel, argued that Notareno would have a pretty good idea of the rules of the road, based on his experience as a bus driver.

But Judge Markle said that Notareno hadn’t been called as an expert witness. She told the parties that he wasn’t qualified to give an opinion, beyond what he’d directly seen and heard five years ago.

Manson was speeding, Notareno said. ​“He was coming fast,” he remembered. ​“He was right in the middle … on the yellow line.”

Conklin, on the other hand, wasn’t going an unusual speed as he turned the corner, Notareno continued.

Manson started ​“revving the motorcycle, like vroom vroom,” Notareno continued. ​“He was thinking about going left to right. He ran out of time and crashed into [Conklin’s] car that was already stopped in front of him.”

He added later that Manson had more time to slow down and more space to maneuver around the cop cruiser — contrary to what he had said in a deposition about the narrow gap between the cars.

“He was not stopping. He was thinking about how to flee,” Notareno said. ​“He’s driving a motorcycle, so he will fit in three-feet wide.”

After the crash, Manson started kicking and shouting, Notareno remembered. ​“The motorcyclist was cursing at the police officer, and he was threatening him like, ​‘I will sue you,’” he said. ​“Then the motorcyclist started asking me to record the situation. He [asked] me if I could take a video of what was going on. But, at the time, I didn’t have my cell phone on me.”

Conklin handcuffed Manson and dragged him away from the motorcycle. Gasoline was leaking from the vehicle, which Notareno smelled too. An ambulance eventually arrived, and Manson went to the hospital.

Conklin later issued Manson a misdemeanor summons. Before a traffic judge, Manson didn’t contest a ticket for failing to insure the dirt bike and for reckless driving. Manson also didn’t contest a misdemeanor reckless endangerment charge. He got a conditional discharge for both, a special form of one-year probation.

John Riley, the lawyer pressing Manson’s case, questioned on Tuesday whether Conklin overreacted.

He asked the detective directly why he didn’t stop in his own lane, potentially averting the collision. Conklin agreed that he could have, but he said he didn’t expect a to be facing off with a motorbike on a residential street that early in the morning.

Riley also got Notareno to admit that he hadn’t felt any imminent danger. That ran contrary to the impression Conklin gave in his police report that a child was playing in the street before the dirt biker drove up, the lawyer argued.

“You didn’t think that the actions of Mr. Manson put you at any risk?” Riley asked.

“Well, that’s why I went back two or three steps, because I wasn’t waiting to see what he decided to do,” Notareno said.

“You took the steps back, which was the prudent thing to do as a dad?” Riley said.

“Right,” he answered. He tried to explain further. but Riley cut him off.

Torres later allowed him to pick it up under re-direct. ​“Was there anything you’d like to explain?” she asked Notareno.

“If I continued crossing the street, he probably would have hit my son and myself, and the police would have arrived on a different scene,” Notareno said. ​“So I don’t know what the police officer was thinking. I don’t know what the motorcyclist was thinking. All I know is that I stepped back a couple of steps, because I was protecting me and my son. Was that dangerous in front of me? Yes, it was.”