A trial date has been set for a former reserve Nashville police officer charged with two misdemeanors in a police pursuit of a motorcyclist.
Leonard Burch, 25, whose address is listed as Pearl Street in Columbus, is scheduled for a bench trial Feb. 22 in Bartholomew Superior Court 2. He has been charged in Bartholomew Superior Court 2 with false informing, a Class B misdemeanor, and reckless driving, a Class C misdemeanor, court documents state.
The probable-cause affidavit filed in Bartholomew Superior Court 2 accuses Burch, who was off-duty, of pursuing 18-year-old motorcyclist Xavier Scrogham, Hope, recklessly at a high rate of speed through Columbus and part of rural Bartholomew County about 11:36 p.m. Aug. 29.
Scrogham was later found in a field off Sunland Road by a Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputy who was not involved in the chase.
Investigators said Scrogham entered a 90-degree left turn on his motorcycle, but went straight instead, hitting a telephone pole guy wire, which knocked his helmet off. Scrogham was thrown from the motorcycle and died at the scene, investigators said.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
