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Judge pulls driver’s license Liberty man was not supposed to have
By Ed Runyan
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.
The girls were walking on the cinders and grass along the road with their backs to traffic when a car driven by Demidovich swerved off the road and struck the group, killing Kyrsten and injuring several others.
The accident occurred shortly after Demidovich had left Hubbard Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3767, where he had been drinking. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Demidovich had a blood-alcohol level of 0.189. The legal limit is 0.08. He was convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol, aggravated vehicular assault and felony hit and run.
His car struck the girls as he was on his way home. He was arrested at home by police a few hours later.
The Studer family sued the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3767, but a jury ruled that the club wasn’t responsible for the girl’s death because Demidovich was not noticeably intoxicated while at the club.
A club member said Demidovich was a “social member” of the club who was not a military veteran. He was allowed to join because his brother was a military veteran.
Judge McKay denied a request filed by Demidovich in November 2010 asking for his driving privileges to be reinstated.
The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, 21 WFMJ-TV, reported Dec. 24 that Studer’s family wants to be sure that the mistake that led to Dimidovich getting his license back is corrected so it doesn’t happen again – whether the mistake occurred at the courthouse, the BMV, or elsewhere.
“This office thinks they are doing their job; this office thinks they are doing their job. They are not working together to make sure the job is getting done,” said Studer’s mother, Jenifer Studer.
“All of them should collaboratively be working together to establish some type of system where this doesn’t happen,” said the victim’s father, Bryan Studer.
Mary Vassis, Trumbull County deputy clerk of courts, said an electronic system went into use within the past year that provides verification of all notices sent from the courthouse to the BMV. That type of verification did not exist before that.