Despite lifetime driving ban, Demidovich gets license on advice of parole officer

WARREN

William Demidovich, 82, of Roosevelt Drive in Liberty, turned over his driver’s license Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court – a license he got in the fall of 2011 despite being sentenced to a lifetime ban on driving.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay scheduled a hearing after being informed that Demidovich might have a license. Atty. Patricia Leopardi Knepp said in court that Demidovich requested and got his license back on the advice of a parole officer.

A spokesman for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said Wednesday: “The BMV can only apply what is reported to them by the court, and in this case, there is no suspension or block of record sent to the BMV by the court.”

Court officials said the proper notifications were prepared by the court in the Demidovich case, but in 2004 there was no system in place to verify that such notices were received by the BMV, so there is no way to know whether they arrived there.

Demidovich was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 and was banned from any future driving for killing Kyrsten Studer, 14, of Hubbard on April 4, 2003, as she walked with seven friends along state Route 304 in front of Pine Lakes Golf Club in Hubbard.

Read more about the case in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.