Glen Rock police officer-dragging: Trial starts for front seat passenger

Christopher Strippel had just left Glen Rock Ambulance on Nov. 4, 2015, when he saw Southern Regional Police Officer Michael Storeman walking down Water Street.

“I didn’t think much of it,” Strippel testified on Monday in the York County Judicial Center. “I thought he was doing foot patrol in Glen Rock.”

Storeman was investigating a call about a suspicious vehicle that had been sitting in the parking lot of a convenience store. He went up to the black 2011 Toyota Camry and saw a woman in the backseat, Jenny Kim, with a needle in her arm. 

When Strippel was at a stop sign, the car passed him on the wrong side of the road. Storeman, he said, was hanging out of the passenger side of the vehicle, his legs dangling off the ground. He eventually broke free and rolled into the intersection.

David Achstetter, 38, of Ocean Pines, Maryland, who was in the front passenger seat, is standing trial this week in the York County Court of Common Pleas on two counts of aggravated assault and related offenses. He’s accused of grabbing and pinning the police officer against the car as it sped off, dragging him about 125 feet.

Most facts in the case aren’t in dispute. But the question appears to be whether someone pulled the officer toward the vehicle, or if he held onto it himself.

READ:Crime has 'changed my life forever,' Southern Regional police officer says

“The person who did that to Officer Storeman, the defendant, is sitting right there,” Deputy Prosecutor Jonathan Blake said in his opening statement. “David Achstetter.”

Blake said there’s only one possible verdict based on the facts in the case: guilty.

But Joe Gothie, Achstetter’s attorney, questioned why someone who was trying to get away from law enforcement would pull an officer into his or her car.

Roberto Tabares, who was the driver, has maintained that Achstetter did not do anything wrong, Gothie said.

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Witnesses gave differing accounts of what happened.

Benjamin Wood was skateboarding at a nearby apartment complex.

Storeman, he testified, appeared to be hanging onto the vehicle “like a reaction.”

Meanwhile, David Besash testified that it seemed the officer was “sucked in like a vacuum.” 

Besash was in a truck with his co-workers in the parking lot of the convenience store. At one point, he was asked if he saw anyone grab the officer.

Said Besash: “I did not.”

Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 717-771-2102.

What happened with the other co-defendants in the case?

• Roberto Tabares, 40, of Rockville, Maryland, who was the driver, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in exchange for serving 11 1/2 to 23 months in York County Prison. He was also ordered to spend two years on probation.
•  Prosecutors dropped all charges against Jenny Kim, 40, of Germantown, Maryland, who was in the backseat and had been accused of yelling “take off” and “keep driving.”

What’s next in the trial?

Southern Regional Police Officer Michael Storeman is expected to testify when trial resumes at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Check out this photo gallery of York County's most wanted: (The photos and information published are provided by the York County Sheriff's Office. To report information on any of these individuals, call York County Crime Stoppers at 717-755-TIPS.)