Editor’s Note: This article by John Lippman was originally published in the Valley News on Dec. 7.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Waitsfield woman has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges alleging that she drunkenly drove the wrong way on Interstate 91 in Windsor and killed an oncoming driver a few days before Thanksgiving.
Sarah Love, 34, was arraigned via video conference in Windsor Criminal Division in White River Junction on Tuesday and charged with driving under the influence with death resulting and gross negligent operation with death resulting. Each count is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, plus fines of $10,000 and $15,000 respectively.
The Nov. 23 crash — which police allege occurred when an intoxicated Love drove her SUV north in the southbound lanes on I-91 and collided with two other vehicles near mile marker 56 in Windsor — killed Kathleen Spence, 59, of Rockingham, the driver of one of the vehicles.
Spence, a graduate of Bellows Falls Union High School who was known as a talented seamstress, had worked as a food server at Exit Ate Restaurant in Ascutney and Father’s Restaurant in Westminster and, at the time of her death, Denny’s in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Love, who appeared via video and whose location was not identified, did not speak during the arraignment — which lasted less than two minutes — instead having her attorney, Robert Kaplan, of Burlington, enter her not guilty plea.
Judge Michael Kainen agreed to allow Love to remain free on personal recognizance under conditions that she is barred from driving and that she not possess or consume alcohol.
Kaplan said via email following the hearing that his client would have no comment.
An affidavit by a Vermont state trooper with sworn witness accounts that was entered into the docket on Tuesday provides a detailed account of Love’s allegedly impaired driving and a minute-by-minute timeline leading to the fatal crash.
Multiple calls came in to local and state and police that afternoon citing erratic driving.
One of those calls was from April Coen, who was riding as a passenger in a truck driven by her husband, Thomas Coen, traveling south on I-91 from White River Junction.
“They noticed a vehicle weaving back and forth between the two southbound lanes, at times almost hitting several cars,” the affidavit says, based on April Coen’s sworn statement. April Coen made an initial call to the Springfield Police Department at 4:28 p.m. and then a second call at 4:41 p.m. to notify the police the vehicle in front of them had pulled over to the side of the highway.
Thomas Coen told the investigator that the vehicle ahead of them was “traveling erratically” in both lanes and at speeds varying between 30 mph and 60 mph. Coen “observed approximately six near-collisions with vehicles attempting to pass” Love’s vehicle and then maneuvered his truck behind the errant driver as a safety measure to prevent other vehicles from passing it, according to the affidavit.
At 4:41 p.m. April Coen again called Springfield police to notify them that the erratic driver was pulling into the breakdown lane on I-91, at which point Thomas Coen pulled over his truck, too, and “made contact with the defendant,” the affidavit says.
Thomas Coen related that the driver “appeared to be confused, unaware of the danger she presented,” the affidavit says; he detected alcohol on her breath.
The truck driver “explained to (Love) the police were responding and she appeared willing to wait there,” but at 4:47 p.m., April Coen again called police to report that “the vehicle made a U-turn in the middle of the road and was headed north in the southbound lane” on I-91.
Love’s U-turn was also witnessed by Allison Massey, who had entered I-91 from Exit 8 in Weathersfield just a few minutes earlier and was heading north when “she saw a flash of light which looked like a car turning around” and the vehicle was “heading north in the southbound lane,” the affidavit says.
Massey then took out her cellphone and “began recording the vehicle driving the wrong way,” which the affidavit said would be submitted as evidence in the case.
Vermont state troopers said they were alerted at 4:58 p.m. of a head-on collision — 11 minutes after April Coen said she had seen the vehicle made a U-turn — at mile marker 56 in Windsor.
When officers arrived a few minutes later, they found three vehicles strewn about the scene: a blue Nissan Rogue with Love seat-belted inside; a white Chevrolet Cavalier with Spence “possibly deceased and still in her vehicle,” and a Fiat 500 driven by Rosemarie Reynolds, who said she had been going southbound when she swerved to avoid a head-on crash with Love’s SUV but was struck and spun into the median.
One of the troopers began talking with Love, who “appeared to be very confused” and “kept asking for her boyfriend,” the affidavit says. The trooper said he observed indications of intoxication, such as slurred speech, bloodshot and watery eyes along with the smell of alcohol, and cans of Sip of Sunshine, an 8%-alcohol-by-volume beer made by Waitsfield brewer Lawson’s Finest Liquids.
The trooper said it was while interviewing Love that he was informed Spence was dead at the scene.
“The defendant was difficult to deal with due to her level of impairment,” the affidavit says. “She couldn’t focus on a task, she asked for help getting out of a vehicle, but then refused to get out when we were trying to assist her” and “kept saying ‘this is so bad’ and apologizing.”
But the affidavit says Love also was uncooperative.
“Due to the defendant being reluctant/combative with rescue,” she was transported to Mt. Ascutney Hospital where she received medical treatment. When Love was asked if she would willingly submit to an evaluation by a Drug Recognition Expert, she refused, the affidavit says.
“Defendant went through extreme mood swings while at the hospital,” the affidavit says. “She would be apologetic and polite for a moment but then call us names the next.”
Love also refused consent for a voluntary blood draw, requiring the trooper to apply for a warrant, which was granted later that evening. The affidavit does not report the results of the test of Love’s blood alcohol level.
