Officer gets jail term for road rage
S.C. policeman threatened teen with gun on the side of Interstate 81 near Salem
BY REX BOWMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Officer gets jail term for road rage
SALEM -- A South Carolina police officer who pulled a gun on a teenage motorist on Interstate 81 during a fit of road rage must serve 120 days in jail, a judge ruled yesterday.
"Your behavior was inexcusable," General District Judge Julian Raney Jr. told Eric Cmeyla, 41, after finding Cmeyla guilty of two misdemeanor counts of brandishing a firearm.
Cmeyla, an officer with the Greenville, S.C., police department, was following a car driven by Destinee Puckett south on Interstate 81 on Feb. 11 when he became angry because she was going too slow, according to testimony during Cmeyla's trial yesterday in Roanoke County General District Court.
A tearful Puckett testified that she looked into her rearview mirror and saw a tailgating Cmeyla pointing a gun at her. In a panic, she said, she hit her brakes. Cmeyla's Volkswagen Jetta slammed into her Nissan Maxima around mile marker 140 of I-81, outside Salem.
On the side of the road, Cmeyla approached Puckett's car and tapped on her window with his police-issue 9 mm hand- gun, she said.
The gun was fully loaded with a round in the chamber, state trooper Jim Cornett testified. He added that the weapon had no safety lock.
Puckett said Cmeyla held up a badge and identified himself as a police officer, but his yelling and the sight of the gun frightened her. When the 911 dispatcher advised her to roll up her window, she said, Cmeyla at first put his hand on the window to keep it down.
"He said, 'I could shoot you right now if I wanted to,'" testified Puckett, now 19 but 18 at the time of the incident.
In Puckett's 911 call, a recording of which was played yesterday in court, Cmeyla's voice can be heard over a hysterical Puckett. He said, "I could shoot you right now, you know that?"
Puckett's boyfriend, Daniel Garst, 19, who was sitting beside Puckett in the car, testified that he too was frightened when he saw Cmeyla with his weapon drawn.
Cmeyla testified that he didn't recall saying anything about being able to shoot Puckett. In asking for leniency, he told the judge he never aimed his weapon at anyone.
He said Puckett wouldn't let him pass and kept tapping her brakes as he was behind her, and when he moved over to the right lane, she sped up so he couldn't pass her.
He said he felt as if the driver in front of him was endangering his life, and he didn't know why the driver "wouldn't leave me alone." He said he took his handgun out of its holster on his left hip and transferred it to his right hand and placed it on the seat beside him as he followed Puckett.
After the collision, he kept his weapon out when he walked up to her car, he said, because "I didn't know who I was dealing with."
"I made a bad decision," Cmeyla said. "I made a bad error, and I'm sorry it happened. I didn't intend to harm anybody."
Cmeyla, who was suspended from police duty after the charges were initially filed, said he is not currently working with the Greenville police department because he has been called to military active duty in Texas.
A spokesman for the Greenville police said the chief will review the matter and make a recommendation to the city manager on whether to continue Cmeyla's employment.