Glenpool Police Seek Witnesses To Fatal Accident

NewsOn6.com

GLENPOOL, OK -- Glenpool Police are seeking witness information about a fatality accident that took place Friday night on U.S. Highway 75 at about 138th St.

Leslie Newton, 43, of Glenpool was hit and killed by a car after he apparently fell off the back of a motorcycle at about 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 28.

Newton had been at the Blue Moon bar located in a strip mall on the east side of the highway when he got a ride home from his boss on the back of a motorcycle, according to Detective Tracey Powell of the Glenpool Police Department.

"They pull out of the parking lot, get on the highway and start south," Detective Powell said. "Shortly after that the victim, Leslie Newton, falls off the back. For some reason, he doesn't get up."

A white car following the motorcycle was originally thought to have been the first to strike Newton but actually swerved and avoided the man, Powell said.

"There's absolutely no evidence at the scene that anybody hit him except the person in the second car," he said.

Related Story 8/31/2009: Man Killed On Glenpool Highway Had Fallen From Motorcycle

Related Story 8/28/2009: Pedestrian Struck And Killed On Highway 75 In Glenpool

Newton was killed when a second car behind the white car was unable to avoid hitting him. That vehicle was driven by a 16-year-old Glenpool girl.

"There was no wrongdoing on her part," Powell said. "The car in front of her swerved, and there was a person out in the middle of the road. There was nothing she could do."

The Glenpool Police investigation into the incident is hampered by the motorcycle driver's lack of cooperation with the police, the officer reports.

The driver, Craig Goldrich of Glenpool, left the scene of the accident and continued to his home at the trailer park where the victim also lived in a nearby trailer.

"He went home and put the motorcycle up. His girlfriend picked him up, and they returned to the bar," Powell said. Goldrich was charged later that evening with public drunk, according to Powell.   

Goldrich is not discussing the night's events with the police, Powell said.

The Glenpool Police are seeking the driver of the white car or any other witnesses who may have information about the accident.

"If I can get anyone else who saw what happened, it would help," Powell said. "There were a lot of people in the bar, but they're not coming forward either. It was at 9:15 in the evening, so there were a lot of people out."

Powell is submitting the case to the Tulsa County District Attorney's office since the motorcyclist left the accident scene. It will be up to the DA's office to decide if Goldrich should be charged with anything more serious than leaving the scene of a fatality accident, Powell said.

Anyone with any information about the accident is asked to call the Glenpool Police Department at 918-322-8111.

Powell said that the teenage driver of the car is receiving trauma counseling from her church in Glenpool.