WARREN Ex-cop to spend year in prison for death

When the car crash occurred, the driver was an off-duty Warren police officer.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The last time Nancy Matijevic received her morning wake-up call from her brother, Harry E. Lamson Jr., was Sept. 13 -- the day he was killed.
"He would call me every day at 7 a.m. and the phone hasn't rang at that time since," said Matijevic as she left the sentencing hearing of a former police officer.
Charles List, 35, who left on disability after 16 years with Warren Police Department, admitted in court Tuesday he caused the car crash that killed Lamson and severely injured two other passengers.
List was off duty at the time.
List apologized to the victims, the court and the police department. He then pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault.
"Chuck is very honorable and he has always been eager to take responsibility for this accident," said Atty. Robert Shaker, his lawyer.
A one-year prison sentence was handed down by Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
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"It's not enough," said Lamson's wife, Jeanne. "I don't think that is what I would have received or my husband would have received if it was the other way around. This is not fair."
She and her daughter Bianca, 8, told the judge before sentencing how much they miss Lamson.
"She cries every night," Jeanne Lamson said of her daughter.
List was led from court by deputies who did not handcuff him. Sheriff Thomas Altiere said Maj. Jim Phillips would be verbally reprimanded for not following standard procedure.
According to reports, List was driving on Tod Avenue around 7:45 p.m. Sept. 13 when his vehicle went left of center and struck a pickup truck driven by Doug Reinard, 47, of McCleary-Jacoby Road, Bazetta. The accident report said List had been drinking and noted reckless operation of his vehicle.
Reinard, who was wearing a seat belt, was treated at a local hospital, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
Neither List nor his three passengers, including Lamson, were wearing seat belts, reports stated.
Karrisa Walsh, 31, of Garfield Street, Niles, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Pamela S. Profato, 36, of George Street, in the back seat, were seriously hurt.
sinkovich@vindy.com