Officer burned in crash files suit

Photo

Adrien Foutz

The driver was sentenced to two years in prison.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Austintown police officer burned over 40 percent of his body in a fiery crash has sued the woman, now a prison inmate, who admitted drinking three shots and two beers before rear-ending the police car at an estimated 100 mph.

Patrolman Ross J. Linert, 48, of Woodgate Street, Austintown, who also suffered fractured ribs in the Nov. 11, 2007, accident, has sued Adrien N. Foutz, 22, of Iowa Avenue, Girard, who is now an inmate at the Franklin Pre-Release Center in Columbus.

The civil lawsuit, which demands a jury trial and seeks more than $25,000 in damages, said Foutz negligently drove too fast and failed to yield to Linert’s police car. Its gasoline tank exploded from the impact.

The suit was filed by Atty. Richard A. Abrams on Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and is assigned to Judge James C. Evans.

In the criminal case concerning the accident, Judge John M. Durkin of that court sentenced Foutz to two years in prison after she pleaded no contest in June to aggravated-vehicular assault. But Judge Durkin said he’d consider releasing Foutz after 18 months if she behaves in prison.

Foutz, who admitted having the drinks at an Austintown bar, and Linert were northbound on Meridian Road at Interstate 680 in the 1:08 a.m. crash. After the crash, Foutz’s blood-alcohol level was 0.279 – more than three times the legal limit.