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VFW cleared in DUI fatality
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
A jury said Thursday it did not hold operators of Hubbard Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3767 responsible in the case of a 14-year-old girl killed by a drunken driver.
The verdict means that the family of Kyrsten Studer of Hubbard won’t receive any monetary damages from the club.
Kyrsten was struck and killed by a car while walking with a group of girls along state Route 304 in Hubbard in 2003. The family sued the club, saying it believed the driver, William Demidovich of Hubbard, was already noticeably drunk when the club served him beers April 4, 2003, a short time before the death.
Bobby Orr, commander of the post, said: “I know every member of the club feels terrible about what happened, but I feel the verdict was the right verdict.”
He added that he didn’t think the club “should be punished for the actions of one individual who was not even a [military] veteran.”
Demidovich, who spent six years in prison for the accident and was released in February, was a “social member” of the club. He was allowed to join because his brother is a military veteran, Orr said.
“Our whole membership wants to extend our deepest sympathies to the family,” said Bill McMonagle, senior vice commander of the post.
The Studer family did not wish to comment after the verdict was read.
The jurors concluded by a 6-2 vote that Demidovich was not noticeably intoxicated while at the club. That eliminated the need to discuss whether any damages should be awarded to the family.
“The majority [of jurors] didn’t find that the evidence was there” that Demidovich was noticeably drunk at the club, one of the jurors said afterward.
Studer and seven friends had gone to dinner and were walking to a nearby bowling alley when the accident occurred. It was about 7 p.m. in front of Pine Lakes Golf Club.
Six of the girls were hit by the car, which left the right side of the road. The girls were walking on the “cinders” just off the edge of the road and on the grass, with their back to oncoming traffic.
One unusual circumstance in the trial was that Mark Hockensmith, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, was chosen to serve as a juror. Hockensmith prosecutes defendants in criminal cases.
Hockensmith said he found the experience educational and didn’t feel like he was called upon a great deal to explain legal issues to the other jurors. “Not as much as I thought,” he said.
“He contributed opinions, as did the others,” an anonymous juror said of Hockensmith. “The presence of an attorney didn’t hurt or help, either one.”