Two Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies will not face charges following an investigation of a police-involved fatal collision on Rockville Pike in April, according to Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.
Deputies Connor Clifford – who has been employed by the county sheriff’s office since 2018 – and Paul Nelson – who has been employed since 2022 – have been under investigation by the Office of the Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division since the April 27 two-vehicle crash in Rockville that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old woman. The division is charged with investigating police-involved incidents that result in the death of individuals or injuries likely to result in death, according to the attorney general’s office.
The fatal crash involving a Dodge sedan and a Honda sedan occurred at approximately 2:27 a.m. on April 27 on the 12200 block of Rockville Pike, according to county police. The driver of the Honda, Jasmin Gimon of Adelphi, was pronounced dead at the scene following the collision. Timothy Pack, 21, of McLean, Virginia, was identified as the driver of the Dodge.
“After completing its investigation and evaluating all the available evidence, the Office of the Attorney General has determined that the subject officers did not commit a crime under Maryland Law,” the attorney general’s office said Wednesday in a release. “Accordingly, the Attorney General has declined to prosecute either of the officers in this case.”
Pack was arrested April 27 by county police and charged with negligent manslaughter by vehicle, failure to immediately return and remain at the scene of an accident involving death, assault in the second degree, attempt to elude an official police vehicle by fleeing on foot and several other traffic violations.
Pack is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds where he awaits a December trial, according to the attorney general’s office.
The investigation by the Independent Investigations Division was focused on the “potential criminal culpability” of the on-duty deputies who had been pursuing Pack and did not examine the criminal culpability of Pack, according to the attorney general’s office.
According to the investigations division’s report, Pack was driving eastbound on Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda at about 2:20 a.m. in his black Dodge with an unidentified woman in the passenger seat after consuming alcohol and attending a concert.
Pack then turned left to head northbound on Rockville Pike and allegedly began driving “at a high rate of speed,” the report states. Clifford, who was driving the deputies’ cruiser, and Nelson were driving southbound on Rockville Pike at about the same time.
At 2:26 a.m. Pack’s Dodge sped past the deputies’ cruiser in the opposite direction, causing Clifford to make a U-turn and to begin following Pack on Rockville Pike. “From that point until the collision, events unfolded in less than a minute,” the report states.
According to the report, the woman traveling in the Dodge with Pack allegedly told him to slow down after seeing the cruiser make a U-turn, but Pack allegedly continued to speed. Attempting to catch up to the Dodge, Clifford began driving up to 100 mph, the report states.
About 30 seconds later the deputies activated the police cruiser’s emergency lights and sirens and Clifford began driving faster – between 110 mph to 114 mph, according to the report. The deputy did not weave around other cars on the road during the pursuit, the report states.
About 15 seconds later, Gimon in her gray Honda began to drive away from a gas station on the 12200 block of Rockville Pike. According to the report, Gimon paused before making a left turn into the southbound lanes of Rockville Pike.
Pack’s car, now allegedly traveling at more than 110 mph and with the deputies’ cruiser more than 1,000 feet behind, then collided with the driver’s side of Gimon’s Honda as she was making the left turn, according to the report.
Electronic data recovered from the Dodge after the collision revealed Pack was traveling at 118 mph before the crash and never pressed on the brakes, the report said.
Immediately after the collision, the Honda “spun several times and crossed the median, coming to rest facing north in the southbound lanes of Rockville Pike” and the Dodge flipped over several times before stopping on its roof in a nearby shopping center parking lot, the report said.
Pack fled the scene on foot after the collision, leaving his passenger trapped in the Dodge, the report said. Gimon also was trapped in the Honda.
Clifford and Nelson arrived about 11 seconds after the crash and radioed for assistance from medics and other officers, the report said. While on the scene Clifford began speaking with witnesses and attempting to provide aid to the woman in the Dodge. Nelson took a medical bag from the cruiser to render medical aid to Gimon but was unable to get into the car due to the damage from the crash.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) crews arrived at 2:33 a.m. and later transported the injured woman in the Dodge to a local hospital. Gimon was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the report.
In body-worn camera footage of the incident released by the investigations division, Nelson and other responding officers can be heard in the video telling MCFRS crews that Gimon had a “very faint” pulse as she was trapped in the car. Camera footage shows the driver’s side door was smashed upon impact.
Responding officers apprehended Pack at a convenience store several blocks away.
The investigation into the incident solely focused on the possible criminal culpability of the deputies and examined whether they had driven negligently during the pursuit to cause a crash, according to the attorney general’s office. The investigation began April 27 and concluded Aug. 7, according to authorities. On May 24, the investigations division released the body-worn camera footage from the deputies.
According to the report, county sheriff’s office policy prohibits deputies from engaging in pursuits and if an attempted vehicle stop turns into a pursuit, deputies “must terminate their immediate effort to stop the vehicle.”
The policy does allow deputies to make traffic stops for “serious violations” such as “behaviors that pose a direct hazard to the safe and efficient flow of traffic,” such as speeding, according to the report.
The investigations division was considering whether the deputies should be charged with criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle. “This offense requires proving that an accused person caused the death of another person by operating a vehicle in a criminally negligent manner,” the report stated.
According to authorities, the deputies were not charged “because there is insufficient evidence” to prove the cruiser was driven in a criminally negligent manner.