Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Driver charged in hit-run appears in court
By ed runyan
WARREN
Nicole Dowell, charged with leaving the scene of an accident after 12-year-old Camorin A. McGhee was struck as he stepped into the crosswalk on Tod Avenue Southwest on Jan. 7, was arraigned Tuesday in Warren Municipal Court.
Judge Terry Ivanchak entered a plea of innocent for the 22-year-old woman to the charge of leaving the scene, a fifth-degree felony, and committing a traffic- signal violation, a minor misdemeanor.
Dowell’s attorney, Nancy E. Yakubek, told the court Dowell is an honor student at Ashland College and reminded the court that she had come to court Tuesday morning voluntarily. It was Dowell’s first court appearance since the accident.
Judge Ivanchak set Dowell’s bond at $10,000 personal recognizance, meaning Dowell didn’t have to pay anything to remain free pending her next court hearing, 2 p.m. Feb. 14.
Dowell left court with Yakubek and a number of supporters. Dowell cried as she stood in the hallway with them.
Yakubek said she had no further comment regarding Dowell or her background. Warren Municipal Court, Trumbull County Jail and county common-pleas court records indicate Dowell has had no previous traffic or criminal record.
Meanwhile, Camorin returned to his Fifth Street Southwest home from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital on Thursday and is regaining his strength, said his stepfather, William Fambro. He was released from the intensive-care unit Wednesday.
Camorin, who still has stitches and staples in his abdomen from the surgery to remove his spleen, won’t be ready to return to school until possibly next week, Fambro said Tuesday.
In the meantime, Camorin has been getting visits from friends and is likely to be hooked up with a video- teleconferencing program and a laptop computer soon so he can participate in his classes at Warren’s Jefferson K-8 school. Camorin is in the seventh grade there.
Camorin’s mother, Carrie McGhee, said she was frustrated to learn that Dowell made her court appearance at the very opening of court Tuesday, at 9 a.m., and McGhee had missed it.
“I wouldn’t have charged her or caused her any bodily harm,” Carrie McGhee said. “I’ve been respectful. I wanted her to look in my eyes and see a mother’s pain.”
Witnesses told police Camorin had just stepped off the sidewalk to cross Tod Avenue Southwest at Fifth Street about 3 p.m. when a vehicle came through the traffic light heading south and struck Camorin with a glancing blow.
Camorin was on his way to Warren’s Jefferson K-8 building nearby to walk his younger sister home from school. Camorin had walked home from school earlier, after he’d been released at 2 p.m.
The car skimmed the boy and spun him, police said. He was thrown when the 2007 Chevrolet Blazer’s mirror hit him, and he ended up next to the curb on a manhole cover.
The driver got out of her vehicle, looked at Camorin as he lay on the road, got back into the car and drove off, police said.
A Southwest Warren store manager driving through the intersection seconds later followed the Blazer into Lordstown while talking to a 911 operator on his cell phone.
A Warren police officer stopped Dowell in the Blazer and cited her on the traffic-light violation and leaving the scene.