The Adams County sheriff’s deputy who crashed his patrol car into a pedestrian on North Federal Boulevard last year was driving while distracted and should have been able to avoid killing the man, his family alleges in a new lawsuit.
Deputy Stefan Pivic struck and killed 53-year-old Anthony Chavez just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2023, in the 5800 block of North Federal Boulevard near Interstate 76.
Chavez was in the middle of the road when Pivic drove into him at 33 mph, according to the lawsuit, which Chavez’s wife, Sangeeta Apodaca, filed Thursday against the deputy and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
The lawsuit alleges that Pivic was looking to his right, down 58th Avenue, and shining a light down that street even though he was driving straight on North Federal Boulevard. The deputy was looking down the street because a person had run from a “suspicious vehicle” in that area earlier in the night, the lawsuit alleges.
If Pivic had been looking where he was going, the deputy would have seen Chavez — who wore light jeans and a red jacket and was bent over at the waist in the middle lane of North Federal — and could have avoided the crash, the lawsuit alleges.
“If he had looked where he was going, there is enough time, with an average reaction time, to stop or at the very least make an evasive maneuver,” said attorney Virginia Hill Butler, who filed the lawsuit with Denver law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai.
An investigation into the crash by the 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team concluded the opposite: that even if Pivic had seen Chavez, he could not have stopped in time to avoid the crash, according to a three-page letter 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason wrote in a June to explain why he did not bring criminal charges against Pivic.
“The investigation revealed that Deputy Pivic could not have avoided striking Mr. Chavez,” Mason wrote.
The deputy admitted he’d “momentarily looked to his right” before the crash, Mason wrote. Chavez had stopped in the middle of the road; an autopsy showed he was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, Mason wrote. Pivic was driving under the posted 45 mph speed limit, Mason noted.
Pivic was placed on paid administrative leave after the crash and has since returned to work in a regular capacity, Adams County sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Sherman said Monday.
Sherman noted that Pivic “was exonerated” by the internal investigation. “As far as the civil litigation, we can not speak on an active case,” he said.
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Chavez’s wife alleges in the lawsuit that Pivic drove through two stoplights after he struck Chavez before he turned around, returned to the crash site and radioed for a supervisor and an ambulance.
She also alleges the deputy was driving recklessly that night and that he turned off his body-worn camera after the crash in violation of state law. The complaint lists five minor traffic offenses Pivic committed in the seven minutes before the crash, including drifting between lanes, crossing the shoulder line and making an illegal U-turn.
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