GOSHEN – The Orange County
District Attorney’s Office is not going to file criminal charges
in connection with the December 5, 2017 police chase in which a man who
was fleeing was killed.
At about 9:50 that morning, a Town of Crawford police officer attempted
to stop a man for a traffic infraction on Route 17K in Crawford. Despite
the officer chasing Louis Williams, 22, of Walden, with his red lights
and siren on, Williams fled, continuing on Route 17K into the Town of
Montgomery.
Williams passed a car on the shoulder of the road, but crossed into the
opposite lane of traffic while speeding and slamming into an oncoming
pickup truck head-on.
Williams was killed in the crash. The driver of the truck, Kristopher
Kolvenbach, 27, of the Town of Montgomery, complained of pain in his hip.
He is a part-time police officer in the villages of Maybrook, Montgomery
and Walden.
District Attorney David Hoovler said the police investigation into the
incident revealed Williams was the subject of a felony arrest warrant
involving charges of criminal contempt and criminal mischief, a warrant
that had been issued in a case involving a domestic incident in the Town
of Montgomery.
“All of us are entitled to be safe on our roadways, and police officers’
enforcement of the traffic laws is an essential part of that safety,”
said Hoovler.
