Friday, June 15, 2018
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Scott Quiggle said Thursday he wishes he could trade places with the woman he was supposed to marry, who instead died on his motorcycle during an accident last May on the Madison Avenue Expressway.
Quiggle, 52, of Warren, was sentenced to 18 months’ probation by municipal Judge Elizabeth Kobly after he pleaded guilty earlier this week to a first-degree misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide for the accident that killed 47-year-old Eileen Hahn of Warren.
In tears, Quiggle told the judge that something – either a pebble or a bug – hit him while he was on his motorcycle and it caused him to lose control and crash.
Quiggle said he had been with Hahn “on and off” for 35 years but the two were planning on getting married before she was killed.
“I wish I would’ve died instead of her,” Quiggle said. “I can’t change that.”
As Quiggle spoke to the judge, a man in the gallery kept saying, “That’s not true.” Eventually a court security officer told the man he had to keep quiet. The man asked to speak to the judge, but Judge Kobly denied his request, saying by statute, only family members are entitled to speak, and the man was not a family member.
Hahn’s son had spoken earlier and asked for a jail sentence.
Quiggle’s lawyer, Mark Lavelle, said his client has no criminal record and feels deep remorse for the accident.
“This was the love of his life on the back of his motorcycle,” Lavelle said. “No one has suffered more than he has as a result of this accident.”
Quiggle maintained he was not speeding at the time of the accident and that his cruise control was set to 55 miles per hour, even though accident investigators have pictures showing the cruise control was turned off.
Judge Kobly said she understands how friends and family of Hahn’s could be upset, but she said she was legally required to take into account the fact that Quiggle has no criminal record. She said his actions were negligent, not reckless.
Neither Hahn nor Quiggle wore a helmet – something Judge Kobly said she cannot fathom.
“I never understand why you folks don’t wear helmets,” she said.