EXCLUSIVE: Mistakes made by US park rangers during RV chase in Marin Co. lead to crash in tunnel

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A slow-speed chase involving an old RV in the Marin Headlands ended with a crash and a surprise decision in court. A judge threw out most of the charges against that driver, questioning whether U.S. park rangers are, in fact, peace officers.

There are several questions about how the park rangers behaved that night, and how their actions escalated what should have been a minor traffic stop.

Pichino Casey explained to the ABC7 I-Team, "I started having double vision back in Napa."

The 40-year-old tells us he started feeling the effects of COVID-19 while heading home to San Francisco with his wife and 1-year-old daughter in their RV. So, he stopped at Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands.

"I pulled over there because I couldn't, I couldn't keep driving, and I didn't want to risk having an accident," Casey said. "So, I knew that national park was somewhere I could go and park for a few hours and get some rest."

Just after 9 p.m. on a Wednesday night in January 2022, a U.S. park ranger knocks on the back of the RV, and then again 30 seconds later. He didn't identify himself either time. The ranger's body cam video shows Casey pulling away.

PICHINO CASE: "So when I heard that (knocking) and I'm like, it's dark, I'm already sick, I didn't even see nothing. I literally just got up and said, you know what? Let me just get up because we're in a national park. I got up and started the RV and drove away."

DAN NOYES: "At that point, did you know that it was a ranger?"

PICHINO CASEY: "No."

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The I-Team shared the video from that night with Travis Norton, retired police lieutenant and SWAT team leader, who now teaches for the National Tactical Officers Association and testifies in court as a police procedures expert.

Norton tells me the U.S. park rangers made several mistakes that night. Number One -- the ranger failed to identify himself right away. And after Casey pulled over, the ranger told his colleagues that he had identified himself.

"I knocked on the door, went, 'Hey police, come out.' He turned on the RV and started driving," the park ranger said.

Norton says that made the other rangers see Casey in a different, more suspicious light.

"Obviously, if you came up to me and said, 'Hey, I identified myself. And then the guy took off.' OK, well, it would appear that he's fleeing from us," Norton said.

A park ranger sergeant arrives and speaks with dispatch. She learns Casey has a $7,500 warrant out of Pacifica.

The dispatcher radios, "148.9 alpha and pc 148 alpha 1."... providing false information to police and resisting -- both misdemeanors, non-violent crimes.

But, mistake number two - the sergeant gets the criminal code numbers wrong and concludes Casey was arrested for a bomb threat.

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PARK RANGER SERGEANT: "It was also 148.1 alpha? I thought they said 148.1 also."

RANGER: "Yeah, must have been, yeah."

PARK RANGER SERGEANT: "Which is a bomb threat."

And that bad information spreads from one ranger to another.

RANGER 1: "False tags?"

RANGER 2: "No, false bomb threat."

RANGER 1: "Oh, bomb threat."

Norton tells us that continues to escalate the situation: "That would take you to a little more elevated sense of maybe there's some danger here."

Mistake number three -- when the sergeant tries to speak with Casey. It gets heated over that simple misdemeanor case.

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PARK RANGER SERGEANT: "So, here's where we're at. You got a warrant."

PICHINO CASEY: "No, I don't, we don't. We already been through that."

MITISHA YORK, CASEY'S WIFE: "I had to pay for it. I had to pay for bail, so I know that we already went through this."

"There's a lot going on here," Travis Norton tells us. "Might just be, 'Hey, guys, have a good night. Just clear that warrant up for us. Thank you.' But then it turns into something that, in my opinion, it didn't need to."

PICHINO CASEY: "I know what you're doing. I know what you're doing."

Rangers reach for door handle. Casey starts engine and pulls away.

PARK RANGER SERGEANT: "Do not take off. Do not take off."

Casey admits at this point, he made a mistake.

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PICHINO CASEY: "And I know I don't have a warrant, and I have paperwork in the car. And we were going through the argument, and he pulled on the door, and it scared me. And I just, I panicked."

DAN NOYES: "And you took off."

PICHINO CASEY: "Yeah."

DAN NOYES: "Looking back on it, do you regret having taken off?"

PICHINO CASEY: "Yeah."

Casey pulls away in the RV and -- mistake number four -- the rangers in their SUVs give chase.

"We don't chase people for misdemeanor warrants," Norton said. "The risk versus gain analysis is just not there. What are we gaining, and what are we risking?"

The rangers escalate the situation further, aiming their long guns at the RV as it nears the one-way tunnel with the five-minute red light.

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Mistake number five...

RANGER: "Just toss this thing and go?"

... they fail to deploy the spike strips properly.

Travis Norton said, "The deployment of the spike strips, not good. He puts them in the wrong spot, he doesn't pull them back -- so you need to put them in the lane that the subject is traveling. That doesn't happen. And then, once that vehicle passes, you pull those spike strips back, so you don't deflate the tires of your own vehicles."

That's exactly what happens. The RV passes without hitting the spike strips, but a ranger's SUV runs right over them, popping a tire.

RANGER: "I think this vehicle will be back in service in a couple of minutes."

Mistake number six -- the rangers try to block the tunnel by parking an SUV inside at an angle.

"We don't block anything, because that is, that's dangerous," Norton said. "You can cause crashes, and in fact, it does in this set of circumstances."

"As I hit the curve, the car's in there," Pichino Casey said. "I hit on the brakes, and it's just not stopping, you know?"

He sideswipes the ranger's SUV and gets stuck in the tunnel with a carload of tourists. No injuries, besides Casey's daughter who suffered some minor scratches.

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Mistake number seven -- a ranger yells, "This car moves, you get shot. Your hands drop, you get shot."

Norton reacted, "You have an officer who is pointing his firearm at the front of the vehicle, right up on, when we compress time and space like that, you increase the danger level for everybody."

Norton says the ranger is elevating the encounter for no reason.

"'Hey, can you get your hands up for me. Just get your hands up.' Something like that is going to be much more effective," Norton said. "Everybody's blood pressure is up at this point. But we don't need to do that. You're the professional."

The rangers took Casey into custody, charged with Evading a Peace Officer with Reckless Driving, Child Endangerment, Vandalism, Hit and Run, Driving without a Valid Driver's License, Resisting a Peace Officer.

Casey's attorney, Charles Dresow, told the I-Team, "Everyone involved made some pretty bad decisions. My client and the rangers."

Dresow successfully argued that U.S. National Park Rangers are not peace officers under California law and should not have been involved in enforcing a warrant from a state court.

"Those Rangers don't have the proper training to be peace officers," Dresow said. "And they're specifically excluded from peace officer status by the legislature. The law is really clear in that regard."

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The judge dismissed most of the charges. A jury later convicted Casey for Child Endangerment and Driving Without a License. He's on probation after spending a year-and-a-half in Marin County Jail. Pichino Casey credits his wife for hanging in there, and finding a lawyer who could help.

"She didn't leave me in there. She didn't leave me. She knows that I've been protecting her, and she protected me," he said.

The National Park Service that oversees the rangers declined my request for an interview and did not respond to a detailed list of questions.

One final mistake -- the rangers impounded Casey's RV, put an evidence hold on it, but the tow yard destroyed the RV by mistake. Casey had wanted it back.

Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.