Police want teen driver in Gary charged

GARY – Police will ask prosecutors to charge the driver of a car that crashed in September, killing two young men whose bodies were found hours later by the father of one of the victims.\nCmdr. Samuel Roberts said Friday that the Gary Police Department had a “duty to bring justice” and will urge Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter to charge 17-year-old Darius Moore in the Sept. 15 single-car crash that killed two of his friends.\nHe would not say what charges police will seek but said they will discuss options with Carter’s office.\nMoore’s mother, Carmelita Evans, said Friday she plans on fighting any charges.\n“I’m going to fight this with all my heart, with whatever means I have,” she said. “I’m not going to let this destroy him.”\nPolice have said Moore and another survivor of the crash, DeAndre Anderson, 17, had blood-alcohol concentrations of 0.05 and 0.09 percent, but have declined to say which level belonged to which teen.\nIn Indiana, drivers with concentrations of 0.08 or higher are legally intoxicated.\nThe department’s pursuit of charges contradicts Chief Thomas Houston’s initial reaction to the crash. In the days following the wreck, reports surfaced that Moore may have received a citation at the time of the accident.\nIn response, Houston said “I can guarantee you it won’t go to court.”\nRoberts said police will present the results of a third-party accident investigation conducted by Lake County Sheriff’s Department to Carter, which requested the review, within 10 days.\nSheriff Rogelio “Roy” Dominguez said he could not comment Friday on the review’s findings because it is part of an ongoing investigation.\nThe crash that killed Brandon Smith and Dominique Green, both 18, sparked outrage from victims’ families. The Gary teens’ relatives say officers didn’t search for the young men, who were ejected from the car as it smashed through a guard rail and plunged into a ravine.\nBrandon Smith’s father found his son and Green dead hours after the crash.\nGreen’s parents filed a lawsuit on Oct. 15 against Gary police, seeking $50 million. The suit, which names the city of Gary, Houston and an officer who was at the scene of the crash, contends that officers’ decision not to look for their son robbed him of a chance of surviving.