Firefighter Handcuffed at Calif. Freeway Crash Files Claim

March 25--SAN DIEGO -- A Chula Vista firefighter who was handcuffed by a California Highway Patrol officer for refusing to move his fire engine at the scene of a freeway crash has filed a damage claim against the CHP.

Lawyer Dan Gilleon said he filed the claim on behalf of Jake Gregoire, a 12-year veteran of the Fire Department. A claim is often a forerunner to a lawsuit.

In a letter to the CHP, Gilleon said his client will agree to settle the claim without any compensation if the CHP agrees to end a "longstanding problem" of its officers delaying or obstructing firefighters or emergency medical technicians at freeway crashes.

Officials "have tried, and are continuing to try, to hide what happened," Gilleon wrote. "The coverup must stop."

The CHP has declined to comment on the incident, which was caught on video by a TV news crew and shown on television and splashed on websites nationwide.

The incident occurred the night of Feb. 4 at the scene of a rollover crash on Interstate 805.

The Chula Vista Fire Department arrived first, with a firefighter-engineer parking his fire truck behind an ambulance to protect responders and the crash victims who were being loaded for transport to a hospital.

"I was told [by a CHP officer], 'If you don't get back into your fire engine and go back to your fire station, you will be arrested,'" Gregoire told KGTV-Channel 10 on Monday as the claim was filed. "I was dumbfounded."

While two other fire engines left the scene, Gregoire said he refused to leave because his rig was acting as a protective buffer.

"I couldn't live with myself for the rest of my life that someone could potentially be injured because I didn't stand up for what I believe in," Gregoire said.

Moments later, Gregoire was cuffed and put him in the back of a CHP cruiser. Gregoire said he thought his career was over.

"I'm sitting in the back of this ambulance...thinking how am I going to tell my wife?" he told the TV station.

After the two agencies' supervisors went back and forth for half an hour, Gregoire was released. No charges were filed.

The day after the incident, officials from the Chula Vista Fire Department and the CHP issued a joint statement expressing "utmost respect for each other and our respective missions."

The officials went on to call it "an isolated incident" that would be the topic of future joint training sessions "in an ongoing effort to work more efficiently together."

tony.perry@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATsandiego

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