Records: Off-duty cop hit 92 mph in fatal crash

ANDERSON, Ind. – An off-duty central Indiana police officer was traveling 92 mph and made no effort to swerve or stop when his SUV plowed into a car, killing a man and injuring the man’s pregnant wife, court records indicated Thursday.

The affidavit was filed to support charges against James Foutch of operating while intoxicated causing death, operating while intoxicated causing serious injury, reckless homicide and reckless driving, The Herald Bulletin reported (http://bit.ly/OLqgw2).

Sunday’s crash on Indiana 32 west of Anderson sent the car into a utility pole, crushing the passenger side and killing Jesse Sperry, 23, of Noblesville. His wife, Rebecca Sperry, 22, who was nine months pregnant and driving, was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital and gave birth to a daughter later that day by emergency C-section. The mother and child remain hospitalized.

In an interview with detectives, Foutch, 41, said he remembered looking down at his dashboard gauges for a second, and then there was a bang. He said he had taken hydrocodone, a powerful painkiller he had a prescription for, and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, court records showed.

Foutch failed two field sobriety tests, investigators said.

Rebecca Sperry told investigators Foutch’s GMC Yukon “full-out nailed” her vehicle from behind, making no effort to slow down or swerve, the affidavit said.

Sperry said she thought her Buick Century rolled at least once. When her car finally came to a stop after striking a utility pole, she saw her husband lying across her, not breathing, the affidavit said.

Foutch does not have a published telephone number and he could not be reached for comment. He been released from jail on bond and placed on administrative leave.

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Information from: The Herald Bulletin, http://www.theheraldbulletin.com