Lost tape could clarify death

PORTLAND -- The father of a man killed during a chase last summer says he has evidence a police officer removed from his squad car a videotape that may contain footage of the fatal crash.\nLarry Hilbert said a company he hired to analyze a videotape taken from the second squad car to arrive at the scene of the crash that killed 20-year-old Brandon Hilbert concluded it shows an officer removing another videotape from his squad car.\nIntergraph Solutions Group based in Madison, Ala., digitally enhanced a copy of the tape from the second squad car Larry Hilbert obtained from Portland police.\nIn a report, Gene Grindstaff, the company's chief scientist, wrote the tape shows an officer walking with an object appearing to be a VHS videotape.\n"The object has the same relative length, width, and height measurements of a standard VHS cassette. It has two white circular objects on one side that are the same size and in the same location as the reels of a standard VHS tape," Grindstaff wrote. "Therefore, it is my conclusion that the object is a VHS videotape cassette."\nIn a story published Sunday, Larry Hilbert told The Star Press the company's findings have stirred up "all kinds of emotions" in him about his son's July 18 death.\nAfter receiving the company's report, he said, "I felt like I finally reached the peak of the mountain that I've been climbing."\nIn the July crash, Brandon Hilbert was pronounced dead at the scene and a female passenger was seriously injured. She is still recovering from her injuries and has no memory of the crash.\nMembers of Brandon Hilbert's family claim two officers involved in the crash knew their son had been harassing him and did more than just chase after him.\nHilbert's family and relatives of a female passenger in his car have filed tort claims against individual police officers and the city.\nPolice said Brandon Hilbert crashed when he failed to make it around a curve as officers Rob Myers and Brad Reitenour pursued him in separate squad cars at speeds of up to 130 mph on Indiana 26 about 40 miles northeast of Muncie.\nFormer Portland Police Chief Bart Darby had said no videotape existed from the chase because Myers thought the video camera in his squad car was not working.\nHowever, the videotape recorded by the camera in Reitenour's squad car and enhanced by Grindstaff purportedly shows Myers, a 10-year department veteran, taking a videotape out of his squad car and walking away with it.\nPortland Police Chief Robert Sours said Thursday he had seen the enhanced videotape, but "it's under investigation right now so I can't comment"