The family of Roderick Jackson, one of two victims officials said was killed by a man who drove a truck into a National Grid work site in Waltham last week, plans on taking action to find out what led to the crash, according to their lawyer.
Thomas Flaws, of Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys, told MassLive Monday that the family’s biggest goal right now is getting answers about the Dec. 6 crash and how it could’ve been prevented.
A civil lawsuit against the crash suspect, 54-year-old New Hampshire resident Peter Simon, may be the answer, he said.
Simon, a Woodsville resident, pleaded not guilty last week to charges including manslaughter in connection with the crash, which also killed 58-year-old Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey.
According to court documents, Simon was previously charged in connection with at least two other car crashes in New Hampshire.
Simon did not have a valid license at the time of the crash. And police claim he “intentionally” drove into the utility site where Jackson, Tracey and others were working. But little else is known about what happened leading up to the crash.
“How did it come to be that Peter Simon was out in the community and able to drive a car? Was it just Peter Simon that was responsible for this?” Flaws said. “The family’s gone through as bad of a tragedy as anybody could go through, and they want answers.”
Simon’s history with car crashes
In 2009, Simon led police on a car chase through Keene, where he hit a public bus head-on and seriously injured a bus passenger, The Brattleboro Reformer reported. He was criminally charged for the crash. But in 2011, he successfully pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to five years in a psychiatric ward in a state prison.
At the time, his lawyer told the newspaper his client had a dissociative disorder and needed to be on medication, but that he was remorseful about the crash.
In 2016, Simon again faced charges after causing another crash and then strangling a man, Patch.com reported. This time, Simon pleaded guilty to half the charges, including aggravated DUI and second-degree assault, according to court records.
Simon was sentenced to several years in prison after this incident, but it is unclear how long he actually served. He also had his license revoked and was ordered to complete an impaired driving program, according to court records.
“[Simon] has done very similar things, by all reports, in the past, and the fact that he was able to be out and have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a car just seems like something that could have been prevented,” Flaws said. ” … I can’t say whether he should have been incarcerated, but he went through the mental health system last time and it does seem like that system failed in this case.”
Flaws said he and his clients are hoping to uncover more about Simon’s history and what happened before the crash through a civil lawsuit they plan to file against Simon. Civil lawsuit subpoenas and depositions are often the best way to discover such information, he said.
Simon has so far not used his mental state as a defense in the Waltham crash case. But Flaws said that even if he does, and the court finds it to be a factor in his culpability, it would still be important to find out why he wasn’t prevented from getting behind the wheel.
“What’s going to be done to ensure something doesn’t happen a third time?” he said.
Flaws indicated that something may need to change in the way cases like Simon’s are handled.
“I think anytime we can do something to improve our mental health system — and sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring attention to it — that’s something good that could potentially come out of this tragedy,” he said.
Remembering Roderick “Kito” Jackson
Jackson, a 36-year-old National Grid worker, went by the nickname Kito, Flaws said. Raised in Cambridge, he attended Cambridge Rindge & Latin School for high school before enrolling in Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology in Boston for two years.
Jackson ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree from Framingham State University, Flaws said. He was also a “standout” basketball player throughout his high school and college careers.
Jackson was still living in Cambridge, where he family still resides, when he was killed. The oldest sibling in his family, he was its “backbone,” Flaws said.
“Everything that he did was to improve the life of his family. His mother, his brother, his sisters — he lived his life for them,” he said.
A GoFundMe campaign for Jackson’s family has raised over $60,000 so far.
