Man tries to cite officer during emergency

By Linda Cicoira

When Chief Brian Tittermary of the Bloxom Police Department signed on to duty one day last December as he was leaving his Belle Haven home, he answered a call for assistance from the Accomack County Sheriff’s Office.

That department was looking for a fleeing suspect in a possible abduction case. The Town of Bloxom has an agreement with the county to assist in such situations when possible.

Tittermary testified Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court that he headed north on Lankford Highway and started looking for the suspect’s southbound vehicle.

Tittermary said there was a lot of traffic on the road. Most of the motorists moved over to let him pass or were already in the right lane. At times he was driving at speeds of 65 mph.

When he got to an area between Keller and Melfa, a pickup was driving slower in the left lane. “I kept waiting for him to move to the right, out of my way,” Tittermary said. When the truck didn’t move, Tittermary passed him on the right and continued to search for the suspect.

At that point, the driver of the truck, who was later identified as William Francis Greenhawk, of Eastville, got into the right lane and sped up beside the officer. At first Tittermary could not see what the man had in his hand. Then he realized it was a cell phone.

Greenhawk was in court to appeal misdemeanor charges that were cited against him for his actions that day. About the time Greenhawk drove up beside Tittermary, the officer was notified by a state trooper that the kidnapping suspect was at a motel in Onley.

Greenhawk was yelling for Tittermary too to slow down. The officer said he rolled his window down to hear what the man had to say and told him he was going to an emergency. The officer then started traveling at 80 mph and he said Greenhawk was matching him with speed.

Greenhawk later called the sheriff’s office to make a complaint. A recording of that conversation was played for the court. Greenhawk claimed Tittermary “abused” his authority and “acted inappropriate, reckless and unprofessional.”

The defendant complained that Tittermary didn’t have lights flashing or a siren blasting. He said Tittermary charged him with several misdemeanors days later because he was angry that the defendant had made a complaint.

“He was going to sling as much mud as possible on me to have something stick,” Greenhawk said, further claiming “I was just trying to do my civil duty.”

Greenhawk was charged with following too close, which was dismissed; failure to give signal, which he was appealing; reckless driving, which he was appealing; and two counts of driving while holding a cell phone. Greenhawk did not contest the latter two charges in district court.

Judge W. Revell Lewis III fined Greenhawk $125 for driving in the passing lane. “I don’t understand why you just didn’t get out of the way…. your own tape shows you are yelling and screaming. … Why didn’t you just ignore it?”

The judge declined to find Greenhawk guilty of reckless driving or not using his signal light. Instead, he found Greenhawk guilty of improper driving and fined him $250.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan said Tittermary “was responding to a very serious situation that ultimately resulted in an arrest.” He said Greenhawk added “to the danger that police officers encounter every day. Maybe he really did think he was policing … he still thinks he did the right thing.”