Driver accused of manslaughter in accident will have case go to grand jury

Ronald J. Wendt, accused of vehicular manslaughter in the death of an 18-year-old Dansville girl, will have his case presented to a grand jury, Darien Town Justice Michael Davis ruled this afternoon.

Davis made his ruling following an hour-long hearing in which District Attorney Lawrence Friedman was required to prove the state has enough evidence to sustain a charge of vehicular manslaughter in the second degree.

Friedman called two witnesses: the Sheriff’s deputy who conducted the field sobriety test at the scene of the Aug. 14 accident and a young lady who was a passenger in the car with the teen-ager who died later that night.

The night of the accident Wendt was driving a 2001 Dodge Ram truck back from Attica, where he had been bailing hay most of the afternoon. He was headed westbound on Route 20.

Wendt made a left-hand turn into the parking lot of My Saloon when his truck was struck by a 1993 Toyota Camery.

Katie Stanley was a passenger in the right rear of the Camery. She sustained fatal injuries.

Neither the speed of the Toyota nor whether Stanley was wearing a safety belt was discussed during the testimony of Deputy Timothy Wescott.

Wescott spent more than an hour on the stand, mostly detailing the procedures and conclusions of the field sobriety test he conducted.

Shortly after he arrived at the accident scene, Wescott said Wendt approached him and said, "I'm the one you're looking for."

When Wescott asked Wendt what happened, Wescott testified that Wendt said, “I saw the vehicle coming. I thought I had time (to make the turn). I guess I didn’t.”

The Camery stuck the back portion of Wendt's truck.

Wescott did not conduct the accident investigation and could not say whether there were skid marks on the roadway.

The portion of Route 20 were the accident occurred is a short span of roadway that moves quickly from a 55 mph speed zone down to 40 and then back to 55.

Wescott testified that he smelled alcohol on the breath of Wendt and also detected slurred speech.

Wendt reportedly told Wescott that he had a couple of beers while bailing hay in Attica, then two or three beers after the work was done. He said, according ot Wescott, that he finished his last beer about 15 minutes before the accident.

Defense Attorney Thomas Burns honed in on the details of Wescott's field sobriety test, apparently trying to establish that Wendt was not impaired at the time of the accident.

Wendt failed all but one of the tests. Burns asked questions about the heavy boots Wendt was wearing at the time, and whether fatigue could play a role in Wendt's inability to successfully complete some of the tests -- it can, Wescott said.

The test Wendt passed involves a police officer holding a pen or other object in front of a suspect's eyes and asking the suspect to track the pen. The officer is looking for whether the suspect can smoothly track the pen, whether the eyes jump and whether the movements remain coordinated. Wendt passed that test.

A chemical test, however, conducted at 12:10 a.m. showed that Wendt's BAC was .08 of 1 percent, right at the limit of when a driver is considered intoxicated.

Once Wendt was at the Sheriff's station, Wescott testified, he expressed concern about the victims of the accident.

"He asked me a couple of times 'is every one OK?'" Wescott said. "He said he would deal with whatever happened to him, but  he wanted everybody to be OK."

Burns issued a statement following the hearing challenging the prosecution's conclusion that Wendt's conduct constitutes, as defined by New York State law, a "criminal cause of action."

"While we are acutely aware of the grief which the family of the deceased must be enduring, the plain fact is that not every motor vehicle fatality constitutes the basis to charge a motorist with a crime," Burns wrote.

Burns asserts that it is a common misperception that drinking and driving is illegal in New York.

"The plain fact is that it is not," Burns wrote. "Our state legislature, through the laws in effect, has determined that it is the responsibility of every motorist to determine for him/herself when they have had too much to drink. ... Simply stated, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle in an intoxicated condition. We believe that there is ample evidence available which demonstrates that Mr. Wendt was not intoxicated at the time of accident occurred."

In addition to calling Wescott, Friedman also asked Gabrielle E. Mahus to testify. He asked only a couple of questions to establish that Mahus was at the scene of the accident, was aware that Stanley was taken away in an ambulance and had recently attended her funeral.