Foley case generates debate on pulling over


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Aug 24, 2005
Law protects drivers, experts say

Foley case generates debate on pulling over

Is a driver required to pull over when ordered to do so by a guy in an unmarked car who claims to be a police officer? The answer, as a general rule, is no, legal experts say.

The issue has been the topic of endless water-cooler debate in the week since San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley was shot by a Coronado officer near the player's Poway home at 3:41 a.m. Sept. 3.

The officer was off duty, wearing civilian clothes and driving his civilian car – a black Mazda sedan – when he spotted Foley's classic Oldsmobile Cutlass weaving erratically on state Route 163.

Officer Aaron Mansker tried to get Foley to stop. Foley ignored the officer's commands, touching off a series of events that ended with the officer shooting Foley three times after the player exited the car near his house. In a court appearance Thursday, a lawyer for Lisa Maree Gaut, a passenger in the Cutlass, said Foley thought the officer might be a carjacker or an “overexuberant fan.”

Under state law, a person who refuses to pull over can't be convicted of evading a police officer unless the officer's car has a red light and a siren. Additionally, the officer must be in uniform and the officer's car must be “distinctively marked” as a law-enforcement vehicle.

The reason for the wording of the statute is fairly obvious, legal experts say: A driver shouldn't be forced to stop unless he or she is positive the person in the rear-view mirror is really a police officer.

'The Red Light Bandit'
Crimes and hoaxes have been committed by people posing as cops.

Click here to read this entire article.


Well-Known Member
Feb 14, 2006
BFISA said:
This debate's gonna rage on for ever.
Not really. When Foley retires after raping the police department in his lawsuit, we will all forget until the next crisis.

David Griggs and Rodney Culver are almost never talked about or were soon pushed back as a footnote real quickly.

Just like Cole Ford (Raiders kicker) shot at Sigfriend and Roy or was it just Siggy?


Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2006
Since we don't know Coronado's policy (one of them lawyers said it was "priviledged information) but if it's like Chula Vista's ....

From the above article:
Bernard Gonzales, a spokesman for the Chula Vista police department, said Chula Vista officers are trained to be “good witnesses” when off duty. As a general rule, they are supposed to use their law-enforcement powers only when someone poses “an imminent danger” to the public.

“Then we ask them to involve themselves as sworn professional law-enforcement agents,” Gonzales said.
Foley was not an imminent threat while walking down the street, and the rookie off duty shooter was still in his vehicle. Trapped was an "excuse" - not a reason.

There didn't seem to be much that could be described as "professional" about the conduct of the rookie off duty shooter. And that's just from reading the police side of the story. Even the little we've heard from the girl's lawyer suggests a different version, and 180 degree perspective on the intentions of the perceived car jacker.

If Foley was drunk, he deserves a DUI.

Everything that happened on Foley's street should be charged to the rookie off duty shooter. His butt is the one that needs to be in jail.