Woman pleads innocent in crash that burned officer

The chief says the officer’s condition improves daily.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Girard woman accused of rear-ending an Austintown police cruiser, causing its gasoline tank to explode and the officer to be badly burned, waived arraignment Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

In a notice filed by her lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram, Adrien N. Foutz, 22, of Iowa Avenue, also pleaded innocent and waived her right to a speedy trial on a felony charge of aggravated vehicular assault.

Patrolman Ross J. Linert, 48, was burned over 40 percent of his body in the Nov. 11 crash on North Meridian Road at Interstate 680. Linert was burned on his face, head, arms, hands and legs and received skin grafts.

He remains in the burn unit at Akron Children’s Hospital, where his condition is improving daily, said Austintown Police Chief Bob Gavalier.

Gavalier said he recently spoke to Linert’s wife, and she indicated he’s becoming more coherent since he was awakened from a medically induced coma last week.

Linert has undergone several surgeries for skin grafts.

A municipal judge allowed Foutz to go free last month on $25,000 bond but barred her from driving.

When the crash occurred, Foutz’s blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal driving limit, the city prosecutor said.

Foutz, who estimated her speed at 40 mph, reportedly told a state trooper that she drank two cherry bomb shots, a tequila shot and two beers at an Austintown bar before the accident.

Just before the crash, another Austintown police officer reported he shined his spotlight at the Cadillac Foutz was driving in an attempt to slow it down, but it accelerated.