A 41-year-old federal fire inspector accused of crashing into the back of a police car on the H-1 freeway last year, killing the officer inside, entered a plea of not guilty to manslaughter Thursday in Circuit Court.
State Circuit Judge Richard Perkins set the week of Oct. 14 as the trial date for Scott Ebert, who is charged in the 2012 death of police officer Garret Davis. Ebert was indicted by an Oahu grand jury Aug. 6 and is free after posting $100,000 bail.
Perkins also allowed Ebert limited use of firearms because he is a staff sergeant in the Air Force Reserve.
On Jan. 21, 2012, Ebert, a member of the Air Force Reserve 624th Regional Support Group based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, was on his way to Honolulu Airport to catch a flight to San Antonio for his annual two-week active-duty obligation.
Davis, 28, had stopped his blue-and-white patrol car in the left eastbound lane of the freeway near the Kaonohi Street overpass in Aiea behind a pickup truck that had a blown tire.
Davis was in his car to call for assistance when Ebert’s truck slammed into the back of the vehicle, which burst into flames with Davis trapped inside.
The deaths of Davis and of officer Eric Fontes in 2011 prompted state legislators to pass the so-called "move over" law.
Fontes, 45, was standing on the grass median on Farrington Highway at a traffic stop near Ko Olina Resort in September 2011 when he was struck by a pickup truck that left the roadway. The driver, James Dorsey of Waianae, told police he fell asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle. He is scheduled to stand trial in Circuit Court for negligent homicide in October.
The law requires drivers to put a lane between their vehicles and a standing emergency vehicle when possible and safe to do so, or to "slow down to a reasonable and prudent speed that is safe under the circumstances of an emergency road situation ahead."
