Biker killed in crash with Dakota County squad car

Few things were more important to Billy Wallace than his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and the Minnesota Vikings. When he hopped on the bike Thursday evening to go watch the team play on television at his sister's house, life must have seemed awfully good for the Vietnam veteran from Farmington.

But just three blocks from his sister's house in Farmington, his bike collided with a squad car driven by a Dakota County sheriff's deputy who made a left turn from the bypass lane on the far right side of the road.

Wallace, 58, was airlifted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where he died on Friday.

"He loved every chance he got to ride a bike," said Bob Haffely, a neighbor of Wallace's for the last 12 years at the Countryview Mobile Home Community in Farmington.

Haffely, who went on some motorcycle rides with Wallace this summer, said his friend's riding style was "old school. There's the speed limit, and that's it."

Family members were stunned and angered by the circumstances of his death.

"If you're going to turn left, you don't do it from the right-hand lane," Wallace's sister, Reba Herr, of Solway, Minn., said Friday night. "It's a passing lane when you have motorists who are turning left. He obviously had to see my brother, and he just turned right in front of him."

The driver of the squad car, Deputy Joshua Williams, 29, was being trained for patrol duties by Deputy Daniel Michener, 33. Both live in Hastings.

At the time of the crash, they were responding to a domestic disturbance north of Farmington, Chief Deputy Sheriff David Bellows said.

Both deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave according to standard procedure, Bellows said.

The accident occurred at about 7:20 p.m. Thursday on Hwy. 3, also known as Chippendale Avenue, in Farmington.

According to the State Patrol, Williams was heading south on Hwy. 3 in the squad car when he moved into the bypass lane on the right side and then began to turn left onto W. 200th Street.

Wallace, who was going south behind Williams, struck the left front side of the car. It was a marked squad car, but it wasn't clear whether it had on its siren or flashing emergency lights, said Nathan Bowie, a State Patrol spokesman. Herr said a woman who lives near the accident scene said she saw no flashers on the car.

Michener has been with the Dakota County sheriff's office for nearly 10 years. Williams has been a deputy since February 2005 and was in the last phase of his field-training program.

Fatal accidents involving sheriff's deputies occasionally have been taken to court, but the threshold for conviction is high. In 1990, a Renville County jury acquitted a deputy who had struck two men while speeding to the scene of a traffic accident.

Three years ago, a federal appellate panel ruled that an Anoka County sheriff's deputy could be sued for wrongful death after he drove a department pickup truck through a red light while responding to a domestic call, killing a 17-year-old Ham Lake girl.

But the full court reversed that decision in 2005, ruling that law enforcement officials driving at high speeds in response to an emergency can't be sued for rights violations unless they intended to harm someone. To hold otherwise, the judges said, would discourage officers from doing their duty.

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455

Kevin Duchschere • kduchschere@startribune.com