Driver in fiery cruiser crash gets early release

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

The Girard woman is now on three years’ probation.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Girard woman sent to prison for severely injuring a police officer after slamming her car into the rear of a cruiser while driving drunk in November 2007 is now a free woman.

Adrien Foutz, 24, of Iowa Avenue, Girard, appeared Thursday before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court requesting an early release from prison.

She still had little more than four months of a two-year sentence to serve.

Judge Durkin cited Foutz’s remorse, acceptance of responsibility, lack of a previous criminal record and lack of any disciplinary problems while incarcerated as reasons for granting the early release.

He also placed Foutz on three years’ probation and ordered her to get treatment for alcohol problems.

Foutz pleaded no contest to aggravated-vehicular assault in June 2008. Judge Durkin found her guilty.

She told an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper she drank three shots and two beers at an Austintown bar just before the crash. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.279 — more than three times the legal limit.

Jennifer McLaughlin, an assistant county prosecutor, told the court that prosecutors previously had agreed not to oppose early release for Foutz after she had served 18 months of her sentence.

Patrolman Ross Linert of Austintown, injured in the crash, chose not to attend the hearing but did submit a letter to the court. The letter was not read in open court, but Linert, at the time of sentencing, did not oppose Foutz’s release after 18 months.

Linert could not be reached to comment Thursday afternoon.

Foutz became emotional and began to cry when discussing the accident that critically injured Linert and burned more than 40 percent of his body in the fiery Nov. 11, 2007, crash on North Meridian Road at Interstate 680.

After the accident, Linert, 48, spent nearly two months in a medically induced coma and underwent multiple skin grafts.

Crash investigators said the collision dislodged the fuel-sending unit in the cruiser’s gas tank, allowing fuel to come into contact with a spark, causing an explosion and fire.

Foutz told the court she has had a lot of time to think about what took place.

“Until this day, I am still hurt thinking about it. I promise you will not ever see my face again. I am never going to drink again,” Foutz told the judge.

Atty. J. Gerald Ingram, representing Foutz, said his client was impregnated shortly after the accident — giving birth while still in prison. He said she has spent only 1 1‚Ñ2 days with the girl and is looking forward to getting home and being a good mother.

Ingram told the judge that Foutz had a troubled childhood, which led to her drinking and ultimately the accident. He said she has taken advantage of self-help programs and had been a model prisoner during her time of incarceration.

“She made some terrible mistakes, and those mistakes had tragic consequences for Officer Linert and for Adrien,” Ingram said. “Since November 2007 she has stood up, she has grown up, and she has done the right thing,” he said, adding that Foutz had completed 15 programs by the Ohio Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

jgoodwin@vindy.com