Published: November 16, 2009 10:08 pm      

Man crashes into utility pole after police pursuit in New Albany

Suspect has history with police, connected to 2004 burglary

A 31-year-old man was arrested Monday afternoon following a police pursuit in New Albany.

Robert E. Hackney Jr., who has lived recently in New Albany and Jeffersonville, was reportedly driving a Pontiac Bonneville when the car hit a telephone pole at the corner of E. Eighth and Jackson streets in front of American Machine Fabrication.

The impact of the wreck ripped wires from the outside of a home, and utility companies had to be called to connect those from the pole to the home. No injuries were reported.

According to police, an officer saw the Pontiac traveling at a high rate of speed and attempted to pursue him. The driver reportedly lost control while turning a corner, which caused the wreck. After a brief foot pursuit, Hackney was arrested.

New Albany Police Department officers authorized to speak to the media were not available to discuss the incident. Preliminary charges were not available as of press deadline because Hackney was receiving medical treatment and had not been booked in to jail.

However, Hackney is well-known to law enforcement officers in the area. He was one of three men arrested for allegedly breaking into and stealing automatic teller machines from the Goodwill Store and Sammy O’s Tavern off of U.S. 150 in Floyds Knobs on April 15, 2007.

After burglar alarms sounded at both businesses, police found now-30-year-old Gary Gallien with a hand dolly hauling an ATM out of the rear door at Sammy O’s, according to a probable-cause affidavit. Police stopped Gallien, but two others escaped through a fire door on the other side of the building.

John P. McCutchen was found hiding in the woods within 30 minutes after the burglaries, and police later located Hackney in a brush pile of Old Hill Road. The men were connected by phone records.

The 2003 Chevrolet Blazer they were allegedly driving had been reported stolen, and McCutchen had been named as a suspect in the vehicle’s theft.

The men were charged with two counts of class C felony burglary, two counts of class D felony theft and charges of receiving stolen property and resisting law enforcement.

Gallien requested a speedy trial and was convicted and sentenced in Floyd County Circuit Court in September 2007 to 28 years at the Indiana Department of Correction. His earliest release date from the Putnamville Correctional Facility is in 2021.

McCutchen pleaded guilty to burglary in May of this year and was sentenced to two years of home incarceration with 100 hours of community service followed by four years of probation.

Hackney’s case is pending in Floyd County Circuit Court. He was released on $35,000 court-cash bond in June 2007.

He spent time at the Department of Correction on drug charges in Clark County in 2008 and theft charges in Spencer County in 2006. After being released from prison the second time, he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear on the burglary case. He was released on recognizance after it was discovered he missed a hearing because of being in prison.

Hackney now could face new charges in Kentucky from a 2004 case.

Mount Washington Police Department Detective Buddy Stump said an ATM was stolen from a store in April 2004. Blood was found on the ATM, and DNA results obtained within the past couple of weeks may link Hackney to the burglary.

“We’ve been advised there was a DNA match,” Stump said. “We’re definitely going to be looking at him.”

Stump said he likely will seek a grand jury indictment on charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.