Hey, there! Log in / Register
Drunken off-duty Cambridge cop plows into three motorcyclists, police say
By adamg on Mon, 08/29/2022 - 10:31am
An off-duty Cambridge police officer was arrested on an OUI charge early this morning after he drove into three motorcyclists stopped at a light on Broadway in Cambridge, sending two to the hospital with what appeared to be minor injuries, Cambridge Police report.
Michael Daniliuk, 57, of Cambridge, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, police say, adding he was also transported to a local hospital with minor injuries following the crash.
According to police, three motorcyclists stopped at a light on Broadway at Columbia Street shortly after midnight when Daniliuk hit them.
Daniliuk was charged with OUI and failure to stop at a red light, police say.
He has served on the force for 24 years, most recently as youth resource officer.
Innocent, etc.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Fire him IMMEDIATELY
The Cambridge City Council should do whatever is necessary to ensure that he never serves as a police officer again. Take away his pension, too.
We're lucky this didn't cause fatalities like in New Hampshire.
Take away his pension?
Jesus Christ Ron. Never mind that it’s against the law and the state retirement board would never strip his pension for this. The guy has worked for 24 years, and you want to bankrupt him for making a mistake.
He should be fired. That’s enough.
On one hand/the other
I'd like to see the accused receive their right to due process before we do anything punitive (suspension immediately not being punitive but rather necessary given the line of work.)
On the other hand, someone who has spent 24 years in law enforcement would know that (allegedly) driving drunk is a very dangerous decision to make and can result in serious harm. He's likely seen first hand what has happened when other people have done it while he was on duty. Classifying this as a mistake is a mistake.
Jesus Christ, anon.
Yeah, we do want to bankrupt the guy. Cops should be held to a higher standard. He should suffer the same ruin that anyone else would suffer.
Yeah we confiscate 401k
When someone is convicted of a crime. The level of commentary on this site when the story involves police misconduct or bicycles is absolutely deplorable. Just uninformed angry monkeys throwing fecal matter.
Yes, take away their 401k
Stop acting like drunk driving is just some unfortunate, unavoidable accident that happens to good people.
Should we take away his savings account too?
Take away his 401k. Do you know what a 401k actually is?
As in, should he be sued?
And the answer is yes.
Cops do not deserve to keep their pension when they drive drunk or commit other actions of gross misconduct. (They can have social security instead even if they didn't pay into it.) You obviously can't take away someone's 401k the way a pension can be withheld but I'm not going to shed tears for people who loose their retirement savings when they put innocent people at risk by driving drunk.
not a mistake
drunk driving is a choice.
and you wanna bet this is not his first time doing it? this is just the first time he's gotten caught and not let off by his fellow officers.
Listen Anon
Driving drunk IS A CHOICE.
It is NEVER a MISTAKE.
There are no excuses here. None. Cops know the rules on this and should know the consequences more than anyone.
Calm down dude!
The guy will most like be fired VERY soon. Also, you cant take away someone's pension, a benefit which they earn over time.
I guess if you just
I guess if you just completely ignore the caselaw you can jump to the conclusion that the only logical option is to take away the pension.
Scully vs the Retirement Board of Beverly is an example that is close to this case. You might argue that as a cop he is putting the lives of those he should be protecting in danger and therefor it is directly connected to his job. The Beverly case though involved someone working at a youth community center that was convicted of having child porn at his home computer and they did not find a direct link in this case. The caselaw makes it clear that there needs to be a connection. If this guy kept his pension I don't see how a court would take away this officers pension.
In regards to the transit officer issue, he was also off duty but was using his position to curry favor and coverup his previous misdeed. So this is a much easier case to pull off. That is an outright abuse of power. Unless someone provides paperwork to show this officer was using his status as an officer to intimidate the witnesses I don't see the case.
Firing is a different issue and that can be done with a review process and has happened many times when the public trust is broken. I believe they have the legal ability to fire him for this.
I know you to be a very smart commenter and I think it would behoove you to do the homework on these things before calling for the most extreme results that are not viable under the current legal structures. Even with what you would consider to be slam dunk cases involving corruption the legal battles can take years on end and those are with people who literally were stealing money from the public coffers.
I remember a similar incident
I remember a similar incident happening a couple years ago (with a different cop) and some psycho in the comments on here said that cops should effectively be allowed to drive drunk because they're under a lot of stress. The sheer magnitude of bootlicking in that comment continues to blow my mind to this day.
This is why I hate the get
This is why I hate the get out of jail free cards some jurisdictions still hand out to friends of the police. I have many police officer friends but I do not believe they should be above the law in any way. If a law is not worth enforcing for a cop then we should rethink the whole law for everybody.
WTF
"Daniliuk was charged with OUI and failure to stop at a red light, police say."
Neither of which have fuck-all to do with the fact that he hit 3 other road users. How did he not also pick up a negligent operation charge?
The charge is OUI causing bodily injury
He will be charged for injuring the bikers.
pEnDiNg iNvEsTiGaTiOn
*
Only negligent operation?
Why not attempted vehicular manslaughter? Or ADW? What is with this state (the US in general, but especially here) and thinking it's totally cool to plow vehicles into people while being real quick to press and enhance assault charges?
To be clear, I'm not saying inflicting bodily harm on people is something I encourage, but just that it's tiresome to have to do CORI waivers for people who have harsh convictions from mutual fights as young adults in overpoliced communities while all these vehicular crimes go uncharged or undercharged. The moral of the story is that if someone gets up in your face talkin bout yo mama, apparently you should run into them with a car, not shove them.
One and 'yer done.
A 57 year old with 2 dozen years on the force, one can only imagine how many times he's been stopped and still gotten home (on his own or in a cruiser).
Get him off the streets, take his badge, and get him off the payroll.
Hit the street, Mike. It's over.
Crazy story
Someone who works as a policeman can still afford to live in Cambridge?
https://govsalaries.com
https://govsalaries.com/daniliuk-michael-a-138406662
Government salaries
Do not trust govsalaries.com!!! It claims my salary as a high-school math teacher in 2016 was $205,324, which was more than double my actual salary. Even in Weston no teachers get salaries like that.
With 24 years on the job
He probably could have bought before housing costs in the Peoples' Republic went completely bonkers.
No one works as that
The role has been "police officer" since the '70s.
Hope they are okay
Hope those riders are okay. I know not much love of scooterists/motorcyclists on this forum, but its scary for anyone out there (bicycles). Hope the injuries were minor as described.
Yes
Anyone who rides a bicycle will read this story and say "he could just as easily have hit one (or three) of us."
Yup
Drunk drivers are the thing I fear most. (Distracted drivers a close 2nd.)
I've known too many people hurt or killed by drunks. There's no excuse for driving when you're impaired. Doubly true for police who can't even lie and claim they didn't know the limits.
I just hope he doesn't get the charged tossed on a technicality. Few people are actually convicted of drunk driving in Massachusetts even when they outright admit to it.
DA interests
It's not a good time for cops to be wreaking havoc on the roads when their district attorneys are running for office.
Middlesex DA's office is unlikely to make this go away when Suffolk DA Hayden's office was recently exposed and roasted for doing the same.
most DAs aren't up for reelection
Suffolk County has a DA's race because Rollins went to work for the feds; we're picking someone to serve the remainder of her term. (The governor appointed someone temporarily, until after the upcoming election.)
The law enforcement jobs everyone will have on their ballots are state attorney general and county sheriff, but some of those incumbent sheriffs, including Middlesex, are running unopposed.
County sheriff and district attorney are separate offices
elected separately. Some of these are contested this year, some aren't.
See https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele22/state_primary-democratic22.htm and https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele22/state_primary-republican22.htm for candidate lists. Neither office is contested this year in Middlesex County.
Can you please
inform the good people of Universal Hub that Rachel Rollins is 1) no longer the Suffolk DA 2) only was the DA for Suffolk County while serving?
Because some of these anonymous commenters like to show up to a story about a violent felony in Middlesex and start going off about how Rachel Rollins won't prosecute it. (I mean, I guess you're correct that she won't be prosecuting it...)
The bad old days
I remember a globe story on a Boston police detective whose OUI was covered up by the Transit police. The State police returned the favor when they stopped a transit cop for OUI near Community college station and they notified the Transit police who came and took the officer home
Bet he’s back out there driving ….
…. as we read this.
Automatic suspension of license should be the rule.
Hell, if an elderly person goes off the road and hits a fence, the license is suspended till they appeal it. Sometimes a doctor’s visit and clearance is required before they can get it back.
This pig on the sauce hit 3 people!!!
I don’t see anything indicating he isn’t back flying freely down the road.
Were those bikers wearing
Were those bikers wearing headphones? Did they have high-visibility clothing on? You can't expect drunken cops to just watch where they're going, now, can you?
Maybe they wouldn’t get out of his way.
Maybe he felt threatened by this gang.
Any excuse will do.
4 wheels owns the road in many people’s minds. Our laws and punishments reflect that.