Suppression hearing for Russell Lauer reset for Feb.

Staff report

WARREN

A hearing to allow Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to determine whether blood-test results and statements given by Russell Lauer III should be suppressed at Lauer’s trial has been reset to February.

The hearing had been set for Friday.

Lauer, 43, of Route 5 in Cortland, is charged with vehicular homicide and failing to stop after an accident in the Feb. 27 death of Brittany Szwedko, 27, who was struck as she walked or jogged along Ridge Road in Fowler Township.

Because a former Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper now living in South Carolina could not attend Friday’s hearing, it was reset to Feb. 6, just before Lauer’s trial, which is likely to begin Feb. 7.

Lauer, his attorney, Brendan Keating, and Mike Burnett, assistant county prosecutor, assembled for the hearing and discussed a possible plea agreement but did not reach one.

“He feels terrible about what happened,” Keating said of Lauer. “Right now, we’re trying to determine what a reasonable sentence would be.”