Friday hearing to determine whether to suppress evidence in jogger-fatality accident

November 2, 2016 at 9:02a.m.

WARREN

Russell Lauer III, who is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, failing to stop after an accident, drunken driving and a lane violation in the death of a young jogger, will argue Friday that blood-alcohol testing and his statements to investigators should be suppressed from evidence.

Lauer, 43, of state Route 5 in Cortland, is accused of hitting and killing Brittany Szwedko, 27, of Cortland, as Szwedko walked or jogged along Ridge Road in Fowler Township Feb. 27.

Investigators said a blood test of Lauer contained alcohol and Oxycodone just after the accident.

Through his attorney, Brendan Keating, Lauer argued in a September brief that he did not voluntarily give consent to have his blood drawn after the accident.

Lauer did give consent for the blood draw to Trooper L.S. Woodward from the Ohio State Highway Patrol in the hours after the accident while being treated in St. Joseph Warren Hospital, but he was experiencing side effects from being assaulted, the filing says.

As a result, his consent to the blood draw and his statements about the crash to the trooper were not “not made voluntarily because the statements were not the product of Lauer’s free and rational choice.”

A man in a car behind Lauer the day of the accident followed Lauer’s car after the crash and confronted Lauer at an intersection, ordering Lauer to turn off his car and give the man the keys, but Lauer wasn’t cooperative.

The man punched Lauer four times in the face before he was able to stop Lauer from trying to leave, the patrol said. Lauer’s face was bloody when police arrived, and he was taken to the hospital for treatment. The filing says the punches broke Lauer’s nose.

Lauer’s hospital discharge summary says he was diagnosed with “anxiety state,” “closed fracture of nasal bones,” “lumbrosacral strain,” “cervical strain,” and a “minor head injury,” the filing says.

“The defense argues that given Lauer’s physical and psychological condition at the time of the questioning, his statements did not derive from a rational intellect,” the filing says.