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Felony charge sought for driver in texting homicide case
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Denise Muslovski
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Tina Yanssens
By Jeanne Starmack
STRUTHERS
A preliminary hearing in a vehicular homicide case was postponed Wednesday, and the victim’s family hopes a new prosecutor will file a felony rather than a misdemeanor charge in the matter.
Whitney Yaeger, 20, of Springfield Township is still charged with the misdemeanor that was filed by Struthers Prosecutor Carol Clemente Wagner after a June 17 accident that killed Dave Muslovski, 55, of Unity Road in the township.
The new date for Yaeger’s preliminary hearing is 1 p.m. March 16.
Clemente Wagner has recused herself from the case. Muslovski family members said it made them uncomfortable Clemente Wagner was previously represented by Yaeger’s attorney, John Yuhasz. They believe Clemente Wagner had a conflict of interest.
Juhasz represented her in a 2009 case in which Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker fought her effort to rescind her resignation as the city’s law director.
There is no entry in the court docket to indicate when the recusal happened and the reason for it. Clemente Wagner could not be reached Wednesday.
Denise Muslovski, Dave’s wife, said the family told Struthers Municipal Court Judge James Lanzo they were uncomfortable about the previous relationship between Clemente Wagner and Juhasz.
The Muslovskis’ daughter, Tina Yanssens, said the family met with Judge Lanzo about the issue Oct. 12. Shortly after, Clemente Wagner recused herself, Yanssens said.
Taking over the case is visiting prosecutor Ross Smith.
Denise Muslovski and Yanssens said Smith will do his own case investigation.
They were among several family members who waited outside Struthers Municipal Court for the hearing to begin. It never did. Instead, lawyers spoke in private.
Denise Muslovski and Yanssens say they want Yaeger charged with felony rather than misdemeanor vehicular homicide because Yaeger was texting while driving. She ran over Muslovski around 5:40 a.m. as he was out for his morning walk on Middletown Road not far from his house.
Yanssens, who works with her husband, D.J., and her mother at the family’s business, Iron City Wood Products in Campbell, has taken up the cause to criminalize texting while driving in Ohio.
Several pending bills in the Ohio Legislature would make it a misdemeanor offense.
Proving recklessness, rather than negligence, to support a felony charge is difficult, prosecutors have said — but a law could be structured like the DUI laws, which call for a felony charge after a fourth offense or on a first offense if someone is killed.
In one case in Washington County, the prosecutor got an indictment on a felony charge after a driver hit another car while texting.
Family members said Wednesday they have spent the last six months trying to adjust to life without their loved one.
Life had to go on because of the business and employees who depend on them, Yanssens said. She keeps her dad’s voice on a message on his private line at the office.
Denise Muslovski said the couple would have been married 37 years next month.
“It’s been a lot of firsts for me solo,” she said. “His birthday. My birthday. The holidays. And now, our anniversary.”
Yaeger did not want to comment on her case.