The Lancaster County sheriff's deputy who hit and hospitalized a 9-year-old cyclist in northwest Lincoln last week will not be cited for his role in the crash, the Lincoln Police Department said Friday.
Despite Chief Deputy Ben Houchin's admission that he had looked down at his truck's radio for a "split second" before crashing into Janiece Moton at around 8:15 p.m. May 10, Lincoln Police determined there was not evidence to ticket Houchin "based on the accident's circumstances as we know them," Sgt. Chris Vollmer said.
"This is an unfortunate accident, but not dissimilar to the thousands of accidents occurring each year in the city of Lincoln," Vollmer said at Friday's media briefing, in which he read from a news release and declined to field follow-up questions.
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"We hope for the speedy recovery of the child," he said.
Houchin, who has worked for the sheriff's office since 1993 and was named the chief deputy in 2020, told Lincoln Police investigators he looked down to change his radio station just before he crashed into Janiece, who had been riding her bike in her northwest Lincoln neighborhood, according to the crash report filed in the incident.
Lincoln Fire and Rescue crews took the 9-year-old by ambulance to Bryan West Campus with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries, Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins said last week.
Janiece was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Omaha and diagnosed with multiple skull fractures, a brain bleed, a fractured shoulder, an injured knee and road rash on various parts of her body, according to her mother, Tiarrah Moton, who said the crash had left the family in shock and shaken her own confidence in local law enforcement.
The 9-year-old's status was unclear Friday. Her mother did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
In the crash report filed in the incident, Lincoln Police Investigator Nicholas Vest said Houchin was driving his Ram 1500 east on West Jennifer Street when he crashed into Janiece, who was riding her bike south on Northwest Eighth Street.
The chief deputy told investigators the girl came out of nowhere and that he never saw her approaching the roadway, Vest said in the report. There are no stop signs on either side of the three-way intersection.
Houchin, who was off duty and driving his personal truck, told investigators he was driving around 20 mph in the moments before he struck Janiece, who was not wearing a helmet, according to the crash report.
The posted speed limit on West Jennifer is 25 mph.
Police don't suspect drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash, Ewins said. Investigators did not test Houchin for either drugs or alcohol, according to the crash report.
For Tiarrah Moton, the Police Department’s failure to give Houchin a field sobriety test — along with comments she heard from officers at the scene, who seemed to be “trying to make excuses for” Houchin — have called into question law enforcement’s response to the collision.
The mother of five said, at first, she didn’t care that Houchin was a sheriff’s deputy. But by the end of last week, when she said she hadn’t heard an investigative update from the Police Department and hadn’t heard an apology from anyone at the sheriff’s office, her attitude had changed from understanding to angry.
“They promised a few phone calls that have still — today, two days later — have not been made,” she said last week. “They have not kept those promises.”
Vollmer said Friday that "efforts to contact the mother of the child by our staff have been made and are documented in our case file." He did not say whether police had actually spoken to Moton since the crash.
Police sought video evidence as part of their investigation, Vollmer said, but ultimately didn't find any. Vollmer said many residents who utilize Ring-style doorbell cameras dial back the sensitivity to avoid the cameras being tripped every time a car drives by.
Vollmer said any witnesses or residents with "direct information" on the crash who have not spoken to police should contact the department, but otherwise, he said, the investigation into the crash is finished.
Reached by phone Friday morning, Houchin declined to comment, saying he wanted to keep his response to the crash "personal" and not conflate it with his role as chief deputy sheriff.
In a statement last week, Sheriff Terry Wagner said he was saddened to hear of the crash and wished Janiece “a quick and speedy recovery.”
Wagner said the early information from the sheriff's office's internal investigation into the crash suggested Houchin did not violate any agency policies. The sheriff said he stopped at the scene, rendered aid and had cooperated with police.
“As a parent myself, I cannot imagine the distress this has caused for the child’s parents and family,” Wagner said. “I know that this event has also been difficult for Chief Deputy Houchin, who also has young children of his own.”