Criminal summons issued for Blair Oaks school resource officer involved in 2023 crash in patrol vehicle
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A criminal summons has been issued for a Cole County deputy who was listed in a report for a December 2023 crash that left a driver with serious injuries.
Mercy Gonzalez, of Jefferson City, was charged with reckless driving and failing to obey a traffic control device, both misdemeanors. The criminal summons was issued on Wednesday and an initial court appearance is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 16.
Gonzalez is currently employed as a deputy with the Cole County Sheriff’s Office and is listed on the Blair Oaks R-2 School District’s website as a school resource officer. Superintendent Ben Meldrum wrote in an email that the district has no comment on the matter and described it as a sheriff’s office personnel issue.
“At this time, we can only comment, these aforementioned matters are the responsibility of the criminal justice process from this point forward,” according to an email from Cole County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Aaron Bolinger.
The probable cause statement says that Gonzalez crashed her patrol vehicle with a Honda Pilot at the intersection of Highway 179 and West Edgewood Drive in Jefferson City on Dec. 15, 2023.
The Honda was driving on West Edgewood Drive when it was hit by Gonzalez’s Dodge Charger that was driving 115 miles per hour while going south on Highway 179, court documents say. Gonzalez had her emergency lights on, but court documents do not clarify if she was in a chase. The statement says Gonzalez tried to steer away from the victim’s vehicle, but was unsuccessful.
The Dodge Charger hit the Honda at a speed between 104-107 mph, the statement says.
“Gonzalez failed to operate her emergency vehicle in a safe manner when she failed to reduce the speed of her vehicle for the steady red stop signal at an intersection as necessary to not endanger life or property. Gonzalez bears the sole responsibility for this crash,” a trooper wrote in the probable cause statement.