Attorney asks Supreme Court to reconsider dismissing charges in traffic accident
The attorney for a Fayette City man accused of hitting a state trooper while driving drunk is asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider dismissing charges against his client. In a 13-page petition, Samuel Davis requests that the Supreme Court take up the issue of whether or not there is enough evidence to charge Donald Miller with aggravated assault while DUI.
Miller, 61, is accused of hitting and critically injuring Jeffrey Jones, a rookie trooper who was on his way to work at the Uniontown barracks.
Jones was hit along Route 51 in Perryopolis when Miller allegedly made a left turn in front of his motorcycle. Jones was hospitalized for five months, and has made great strides in his recovery.
After the accident, police allege Miller stopped to flag down a motorist to get help, but then left the scene.
He was stopped a short time later by police after witnesses identified his car. Miller’s blood-alcohol level was .119 percent, according to police. Miller was charged with aggravated assault while DUI, failure to turn/signal properly, careless driving, accidents involving death or serious bodily injury, DUI and duty to give information and render aid.
Davis, however, successfully petitioned a Fayette County judge to throw out the first three charges on the basis that there was no evidence to support them. The assault charge was the most serious of any of the charges levied against Miller.
In throwing out those charges, Judge Gerald R. Solomon ruled that there was no evidence that Miller was criminally negligent in causing the accident. Such negligence is legally defined as being aware of a great risk and its possible consequences and still disregarding the risk and is part of the legal definition of the assault charge.
The Superior Court disagreed with Solomon, and in an opinion handed down last month, a three-judge panel reinstated the three charges against Miller. The judges found that there was the presence of criminal negligence.
Now, Davis wants the state’s highest court to review the Superior Court’s decision.
Calling the Superior Court’s decision akin to their acting as a “Monday morning quarterback” for prosecutors, Davis asked the Supreme Court to find that Solomon’s analysis of the case – not the actions of the Superior Court – was correct.
“Judge Solomon did not commit a clear, evident or apparent abuse of discretion in dismissing the aforesaid charges based upon the absence of facts on the record. Facts should not be permitted to be manufactured by the Superior Court to usurp the function of the trial court who sits in a more advantageous position to adjudicate the facts of each case,” wrote Davis.
The Superior Court, wrote Davis, based its finding of criminal negligence on lacking facts and unreasonable inferences.
Davis said the Superior Court based its finding on testimony from a state police accident reconstructionist who said that Miller’s blood-alcohol was over the legal limit for driving and that he turned left in front of Jones.
That, wrote Davis, is a case of ordinary negligence.
“Without an iota of evidence on the issue of the defendant’s criminal negligence regarding the cause of this accident, the Commonwealth has taken from the court the ability to instruct any jury on the necessary element of negligence to sustain any type of conviction for aggravated assault by motor vehicle while driving under the influence,” said Davis.
The Supreme Court will now decide whether or not to hear Davis’ appeal. The high court is not bound to do so.
District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon, reached at home Wednesday evening, said she had not yet read the request for review, and wanted to reserve comment until doing so.