News 12 at 6 o'clock, November 9, 2009

JEFFERSON CTY, Ga.---A two-year-old was killed and her brother injured when authorities say their father sped off from a traffic stop in Jefferson County. Now the sheriff's office is taking a closer look at its policy when a chase involves children, and whether or not the deputy involved followed proper procedures.

News 12 was in the courtroom today as the suspect, Miller Smith, faced a Jefferson County judge. The judge set bond at $140,000. That breaks down to $10,000 for each of the 14 charges he faces. One of those charges is vehicular homicide in the death of his two-year-old daughter Alike'.

While Smith waits to find out his ultimate fate, the Jefferson County deputy involved in the chase, Deputy Alan Logue, is also waiting while the county looks into whether he followed procedure.

A sheriff's office spokesman tells News 12 policies change when there are children involved in a pursuit. The question is, did Deputy Logue know there were children in the car?

It all started Friday night, when Logue pulled Smith over. Deputy Logue says the car stopped, but took off less than 30 seconds later. That led to a chase, which ended with the car overturned and two young kids thrown onto the road.

"It's just so unreal to believe that she's gone so soon," said Alike's mother, Jennifer Randall. She says she partly blames Deputy Logue: "They ran them off the road and the kids were just thrown from the car."

But the sheriff's office disagrees.

"(Deputy Logue) was nowhere near the accident when the actual crash occurred," said Maj. Charles Gibbons. Maj. Gibbons believes Smith caused the crash on his own.

The Georgia State Patrol is now investigating. They have found no evidence the two cars ever touched.

But the sheriff's office is still trying to figure out if Deputy Logue followed another policy.

"If we observe children in a car during a high speed pursuit, we'll back off," Maj. Gibbons said. "That's just common sense."

Maj. Gibbons says there's no indication Logue saw the kids, but the sheriff's office will look at dash cam video to help find out.

"It's really sad but he had every opportunity to stop, terminate the chase," Randall said.

"We got choices in our life. It was a bad choice made in this situation," Maj. Gibbons said.

That set of choices left a little girl with none of her own.

Alike's brother, Xavion Smith, was also thrown from the car during the crash. He is still in the hospital with broken bones but is expected to be okay.

Deputy Alan Logue is still serving on road patrol.

Both the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and GSP are investigating. At this time, they don't believe Deputy Logue did anything criminal. They say the dash cam video should help a lot in the investigation.