LEONARDTOWN, Md. - A judge acquitted a Prince George's County police officer of manslaughter charges Wednesday in connection with the horrific crash on the Capital Beltway last year that killed two men and injured 15 other people.

The defense asked for the acquittal after the prosecution rested, arguing the state had failed to provide any evidence of gross negligence on the behalf of Officer Scott Campbell.

The ruling is the equivalent of a not guilty verdict, and prevents the state from refiling charges, according to Campbell's attorney, Michael J. Belsky.

Campbell is still the subject of an internal investigation by the Prince George's County Police Department; there remains a possibility that he could go back to work behind the wheel of a police cruiser.

On Tuesday, prosecutors played video from the dash camera of Ofc. Campbell's cruiser, which showed the moments before and during the crash. They asked jurors to find Ofc. Campbell guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of Kevin McCarter, 49, of Fort Washington, and Sidney Clanton, 50, of Buffalo, N.Y.  Prosecutors said  Ofc. Campbell failed to properly perform his police duties and acted in reckless and negligent way when he chased a motorcycle at speeds over 100 miles an hour on May 30, 2007. 

The video shows the motorcycle race by the officer on Pennsylvania Avenue. It then shows Ofc. Scott Campbell giving chase, weaving in and out of traffic, up and onto the Capital Beltway and across four lanes of traffic at speeds of up to 106 miles an hour.

Ofc. Campbell manually shut off the video at that point.

Witness Terry Brown testified in court about what he saw. 

"The motorcycle passed between myself and the car next to me," Brown told ABC 7/NewsChannel 8's Brad Bell. "And almost immediately afterwards the police officer went up the left hand shoulder in pursuit."

Note, the video goes to black for six seconds in the middle.

Brown said he rushed to the officer's aid after the crash. He also said the officer initially denied being at fault.

Even though the camera was turned off, it records and stores the thirty seconds of images before the crash. The camera came back on only six seconds after Ofc. Campbell turned it off. It showed Campbell turning off his lights and accelerating to 124 mph while on the left shoulder, until he loses control and hits an SUV at 115 mph.

The two men inside the SUV, McCarter and Clanton, were killed. The sole survivor in the vehicle, passenger Paul Loyness, said, "My friends are gone because of an incident like this."

And LaTalia McCarter, widow of Kevin McCarter, lamented, "The judge took away our opportunity for justice... police are supposed to protect us."


At least 15 other people were hurt in a series of chain-
reaction crashes triggered by the collision. All lanes of the Capital Beltway were closed for five hours after the crash.

"My opinion is the officer made a mistake," said Brown. "Can he bring it back? No. Is there anything in that court that's gonna change what he has to live with for the rest of his life? Probably not."

"All the evidence that represents what occurred that day is going to be heard today in court, over the course of this week in court," said Vince Canales, president of the Prince George's County Fraternal Order of Police. "And a jury of his peers will make a determination -- one way or the other -- whether the actions he took were appropriate or not."

The defense claimed the motorcyclist who was being chased should have been charged, not the officer.

The trial was moved from Prince George's County to Leonardtown, in St. Mary's County, because of pre-trial publicity.