Defense seeks to suppress evidence in Cortland jogger hit-and-run case

Staff report

WARREN

The defense counsel for Russell Lauer III of Cortland, accused of a hit-and-run accident that killed a woman jogger last winter, will attempt to suppress toxicology evidence.

Lauer, 43, is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, failing to stop after the accident and drunken driving in the death of Brittany Szwedko, 27, of Cortland.

In a hearing Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Lauer’s defense attorney requested an expert to review toxicology results, before the suppression hearing, which has been scheduled for Nov. 4.

Szwedko, a public-relations employee of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, was a jogger who was training for a half-marathon at the time she was hit. A witness said she appeared to be walking at the time of the accident but was several feet off the road. She was struck Feb. 27. She died March 1.

Lauer, who has several drunken-driving convictions on his record, remains in the Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $215,000 bond.