HARRISBURG — Court records show a retired state trooper who police say fatally shot two Pennsylvania Turnpike workers and robbed an armored car collecting fare money filed for bankruptcy last year and had been accused of domestic assault.
Clarence Briggs and his wife filed for personal bankruptcy on March 9, 2015, in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg. They had $315,000 in credit card, student loan, mortgage and vehicle loan debt.
They also said they had $10 in cash, $400 in their checking account, a Lexus valued at $15,6120, BMW valued at $7,800, Dodge RAM truck valued at $1,000 and a house valued at $196,000.
Their bankruptcy lawyer, Chad Julius, said the couple’s repayment plan had been approved and they were making the required installments.
“I didn’t know him well, but I did meet with him several times,” Julius said. “The man that I met with was certainly not capable of the crimes that were committed. I’m in shock.”
Police say that on Sunday, Clarence Briggs shot and killed turnpike employee Danny Crouse and Ronald Heist, who was working in turnpike security, at the rural Fort Littleton toll plaza west of Harrisburg. Briggs was shot and killed by police.
Briggs had been accused of domestic violence in 2014. Court records show that charges of simple assault and harassment were dismissed, however, four months after they were filed. Cumberland County Court records show Briggs was arrested March 24, 2014, and charged with simple assault and harassment by a trooper from the state police Carlisle barracks. The charges were dismissed on July 8, 2014.
Court records show the victim in the case was Donna Briggs, who told investigators that Briggs had broken down the locked door of a bedroom in their home as she hid during an argument, then caused an injury by hitting her in the head.
His defense lawyer, Corky Goldstein, said the matter was settled before a district justice.
“My records indicate that he never had any criminal problems before that domestic dispute. I have not seen or heard anything about him until the horrible events of yesterday,” Goldstein said.
Briggs joined the state police in 1988 and spent his entire career working out of the Newville station, which patrols the turnpike. State pension records indicate he withdrew $112,000 upon retirement in 2012 and was collecting a $5,200-a-month pension.
His bankruptcy filing said he had been working as a range master at a suburban Harrisburg facility for a weapons manufacturer. The company, IWI US Inc., said it planned to issue a statement.
Briggs lived about 36 miles east of the Fort Littleton interchange where the shootings occurred.
