Nearly two years ago, then-29-year-old Anthony J. Dorsey tried to elude the Kansas Highway Patrol, which had been pursuing him for an outdated vehicle registration, on westbound I-70.
When the chase, which had begun in Wyandotte County, neared the toll checkpoint just west of Kansas 7 in Leavenworth County, Dorsey wheeled his gray SUV around and began speeding east in the westbound lane.
More often than not, such situations end in big trouble, and this one did.
Nineteen-year-old Nathan Pena of Brookfield, IL, a western Chicago suburb, was heading west on the Turnpike, bound for Colorado to visit a friend. Pena saw the gray SUV do an about-face and start heading in his direction. In the seconds he had available, he whipped the steering wheel of his red vehicle to the right, toward the shoulder of the highway and a grassy incline.
As I wrote back on Oct. 7, 2019, Dorsey also took evasive action, but, maddeningly, he turned the same way. His SUV, larger than Pena’s vehicle, struck the red car nearly head on. Although Pena was wearing a seat belt, the impact killed him. And as sometimes happens in such tragedies, the bad guy was not seriously injured.
Dorsey was charged with first-degree murder, and it took nearly two years for resolution. This morning, in Leavenworth County District Court, Dorsey, now 31, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17 and could get nearly 50 years in prison.
As it turned out, Dorsey had previous convictions for aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated robbery, and he was a parole violator at the time of the crash. There is no indication, however, that the highway patrol officer or officers giving chase knew at the time anything more than that the SUV had an expired plate.
The Star pointed out that the highway patrol policy at that time (I don’t know if it has changed) required the responding officer to undertake a pursuit only if he or she believed the risk to the public is lower than the immediate danger from the suspect remaining at large.
In this instance, obviously, the immediate risk to the public outweighed the danger posed by Dorsey remaining at large, at least for a while longer.
I’m not sure if the highway patrol continued the pursuit after Dorsey turned around. I hope not. In any event, the pursuit should have ended earlier. It had to be pretty clear to the officers Dorsey was only going to be stopped by a crash or — best case scenario — stop sticks.
I don’t think there’s a parent alive who would say, if it was their son or daughter who had died, that the continued pursuit was a good idea.
Among those left to grieve Pena’s loss were his parents Jennifer and Alex; sister Lauren; and grandfather John Pena and his wife Chris Meier and grandmother Alice Iankav.
Four days ago, having just learned of my October 2019 post, Jennifer Pena wrote me an email, saying, “The police were in the wrong for engaging this high-speed pursuit as well as the driver who fled police and killed my son.”
These are always judgment calls. But too often, up to this point, officers seem to err on the side of pursuit rather than public safety. The trend, and policies, needs to change.
In a story today about the Dorsey plea, The Star reported that between 2014 and 2019, at least six innocent people were killed and several others seriously injured in police pursuits throughout the metro area. The story said experts had told the paper that people evading police are more likely to reduce speed and drive less recklessly if they think police have stopped chasing them.
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Below the 2019 obituary that appeared on the website of the Hitzeman Funeral Home in Brookfield is a string of condolences.
A woman named Alexandra Montgomery wrote: “Nathan was an amazing person. I am beyond grateful and blessed to have known him. He made working at Best Buy a million times better. He always knew how to make me laugh and could always make me feel better. He is going to be greatly missed, but his spirit will live on.”
Another woman, Anna Eich, wrote: “Nathan was a good friend to my daughter Linnea when they were at Park (Junior High). They were in band together. I remember Nathan as a good and kind-hearted young man. My heart goes out to your entire family.”
What a tragedy…It shouldn’t have happened.
Note: On Friday, Sept. 17, Anthony Dorsey was sentenced to 49 years and four months in prison.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
One of the reasons these punks flee is that they think they will get away if they endanger enough lives. How many times have we seen videos where the cops corner someone on a vacant lot only to have them give the cops the finger and speed off to endanger more lives and the cops allow it because if they use lethal force the media will call for their heads.
Hollywood and the media make the matter worse, Hollywood by filling films with car chases that cause endless wrecks in which no one is harmed and the media, papers like the Star that make law enforcement the villain.
Two things need to happen, the first is that anyone fleeing from law enforcement needs to be treated in the same manner as a person waving a deadly weapon and threatening the public. Secondly, they need to be prosecuted with heavy minimum sentences for anyone endangering the public by fleeing when caught.
I disagree that Dorsey’s act was trivial because it was only an expired plate. The very act of fleeing tells you that the person driving is no ordinary citizen. All the more reason to get the person off the streets by any means necessary.
The loss of the young man is tragic, but those who glorify these chases and those who encourage criminals to flee by villainizing law enforcement also have blood on their hands.
I see where you’re coming from — the guy was no good. But I just think the risk to public safety dictated a suspension of the chase.
That’s what they count on and why they flee.