Bingue

I. BACKGROUND

At approximately 3:41 p.m., on November 29, 2003, offi- cers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (“LVMPD”) attempted to pull over a stolen Toyota Camry. When the driver refused to stop, a police chase ensued. The chase would last an hour, cover nearly 90 miles, and involve at least a dozen units and a helicopter. Officer Eli Prunchak was at a car dealership “ordering a new door panel for [his] patrol vehicle” when he “heard radio traffic that units were in pursuit of a stolen vehicle . . . heading southbound on Boulder Highway.” Based on the radio traffic, Prunchak “thought that [he] was close enough to the pursuit that [he] had a good chance of catching up to it and assisting other officers in apprehension of the suspects.” Ten minutes after LVMPD first attempted to stop the Toyota, it entered the southbound lanes of the U.S. 95, a major north-south freeway. At that point, Prunchak “still thought that [he] was close enough to help and did not know at the time how many other units were in pursuit.” Calculating that he was “still approximately a half mile to a mile behind the pursuit,” Prunchak, with emergency lights active, entered the left lane of…