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Main Page State, town to pay crash victim's family $1.25 million
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Posted by: SinePari

Police officers failed, despite multiple opportunities, to arrest an intoxicated man before he killed Salve Regina student Brigid Kelly in 2001.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 24, 2005

BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer

A settlement has been reached to pay $1.25 million to the estate of Brigid Kelly for failures by the North Kingstown police and the Rhode Island State Police to stop and arrest an intoxicated man who later killed the college student in a three-car crash four years ago.

Under the terms of the agreement, which was reached on Wednesday, the Town of North Kingstown and the state must each pay the estate about $625,000 within 30 days.

Ellen M. Kelly, Brigid's mother, remains bitter that the police failed to protect her daughter.

"My thoughts are that it just angers me that the police are trained to do a job and they didn't do it," Kelly said in a phone interview yesterday. "And, it wasn't just one mistake. It still just gets me mad."

The circumstances leading up to Brigid Kelly's death were the subject of a three-month investigation by The Providence Journal that produced a front-page story in November 2004. The investigation found that in the hours before Kelly's death, on Dec. 1, 2001, the North Kingstown police and the state police had four opportunities over three hours to prevent the intoxicated man, Wayne P. Winslow, from killing her.

On each occasion, the police either let Winslow go, or they failed to respond to frantic calls that the stolen van he was driving was endangering the lives of motorists in North Kingstown.

Winslow, 49, an ex-convict and heroin addict, had a history of alcohol and drug abuse.

On the day of Kelly's death, at 5:25 a.m., North Kingstown Patrolman Eric Lewis picked up Winslow on the Jamestown Bridge and drove him to the park and ride bus stop on Route 2 in North Kingstown.

At 6:11 a.m., the owner of Snoopy's Diner, about a half-mile north of the park and ride, called the police and told them that a man, later identified as Winslow, was walking down the middle of Route 2. He told the police that the man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

At 6:15, Lewis and North Kingstown Police Officer Christopher J. Currier responded. They dropped Winslow off at another park and ride lot in East Greenwich.

Between 6:45 and 7:30 a.m., Winslow crossed Route 2 from the bus stop and stole a blue van from a parking lot.

At 8:03, Meg Duhaime of North Kingstown called 911 to report that a speeding blue van had almost crashed into her car on Route 1.

Four minutes later, Duhaime called 911 again to ask why the van had not been stopped. She told state police Trooper Eve E. Marani that she had just seen a cruiser drive by on Route 1 north, without using its lights or siren.

Marani, the Journal investigation found, answered Duhaime's frantic calls, but never broadcast them to police patrolling the area.

At 8:40 a.m., the blue van Winslow was driving slammed into the rear of a minivan on Route 1 south. The impact pushed the minivan across the median divider and into the path of Kelly, who was driving north in her Toyota Corolla. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kelly, who was 20, had spent the night with friends in Point Judith. She was heading to a class on substance abuse at Salve Regina University in Newport.

In February 2004, John J. Barton, a lawyer representing Brigid Kelly's estate, filed a lawsuit against North Kingstown and Officers Lewis and Currier, seeking $6 million in damages.

Currier had left North Kingstown in August 2002 to become a police officer in Providence; Lewis had left in 2003 to become a police officer in his hometown of East Providence.

As a result of the Journal investigation, Barton and Frank Connor, another lawyer for the estate, amended their lawsuit and added Marani and the state police as defendants.

Winslow, who suffered minor injuries, was sentenced to 17 years in the Adult Correctional Institutions. He said in a deposition that he doesn't understand why the North Kingstown police did not arrest him before the fatal crash.

The North Kingstown Police Department never conducted an internal investigation into its handling of Winslow.

In a deposition, Officer Lewis said then-Chief Steven B. Fage gave him a pep talk a few days after the crash.

"He just gave me his experiences through the ranks on how situations like this transpire and it is important to stay mentally healthy, not to take it personally," Lewis said.

Last Saturday, a mediator met with the lawyers for Brigid Kelly's estate and the defendants to try to resolve the case through mediation.

The case was scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 10 in Newport Superior Court.

The attorney general's office defends the state police in all civil and criminal cases.

"It was an absolutely tragic case and we believe it was in everybody's best interest to settle," said Michael Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.

State police Maj. Steven G. O'Donnell said that his agency takes responsibility for the missteps of Marani, who has since been fired for her failure to broadcast the 911 calls and for other department infractions.

"We do recognize and understand that it was a tragic and horrible event," O'Donnell said. "It's just another case that brought to light the inadequacies of Eve Marani."

On Wednesday, an agreement was reached after several "torturous" negotiating sessions, according to Connor, one of the lawyers for the Kelly estate.

Connor said that the Interlocal Insurance Trust is expected to cover the $625,000 that North Kingstown has been ordered to pay. He said the state will pick up the tab for the $625,000 that it must pay.

Despite the settlement that ends the four-year legal battle, an emptiness remains in Ellen Kelly's life. The loss of her daughter is something she will never get over.

"I just really want Brigid back," she said.

Posted by: j809

Quote:

On the day of Kelly's death, at 5:25 a.m., North Kingstown Patrolman Eric Lewis picked up Winslow on the Jamestown Bridge and drove him to the park and ride bus stop on Route 2 in North Kingstown.

At 6:11 a.m., the owner of Snoopy's Diner, about a half-mile north of the park and ride, called the police and told them that a man, later identified as Winslow, was walking down the middle of Route 2. He told the police that the man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

At 6:15, Lewis and North Kingstown Police Officer Christopher J. Currier responded. They dropped Winslow off at another park and ride lot in East Greenwich.

Between 6:45 and 7:30 a.m., Winslow crossed Route 2 from the bus stop and stole a blue van from a parking lot.

At 8:03, Meg Duhaime of North Kingstown called 911 to report that a speeding blue van had almost crashed into her car on Route 1.

I hope their homes are Homesteaded.

Posted by: SinePari

Quote:

Originally Posted by j809

I hope their homes are Homesteaded.

Brand new GMC Denalis for the whole family...courtesy of the town and state.

Posted by: tarc

You hate to Monday Morning QB any police officer, but having already dropped Winslow off once and then getting called a second time to deal with him again less than an hour later-and letting him go a second time. I don't if RI has PC or public intoxication laws, but this sounds like a couple of patrolman were getting their midnight beauty rest interrupted and didn't want to do anything. As they always said in the academy and throughout FTO, "you put your hands on it, you own it."

Posted by: no$.10

True, but I used to work for a supervisor who would FLIP out if you brought in a PC, or for that matter, anything after 0200. I am sure that if the sh#t hit the fan like this, he would have denied it to the hilt. I am thinking these guys may have been working for someone like that, and "There but for the grace of God..."

Posted by: SPD3

The article does not say whether he was intoxicated as a result of alcohol intake or narcotics. To play devil's advocate what if this were in Mass and the subject was only under the influence of narcotics but had none on his person and the road in question was a numbered secondary highway with sidewalks? The protective custody statute is strictly limited to alcohol. This incident occurred at the beginning of rush hour. Many many a cellular call of erratic operation is not broadcast if only one call is received and the patrols are tied up at other calls. I think the departments caved on the settlement. Typical catch 22 if you arrest them before they commit a crime then you are violating their rights but if you don't catch them fast enough afterward you are incompetent. Assume for a moment a cruiser had caught up with the suspect, a high speed pursuit ensued, and the chase ended in a fatal accident. The exact same lawsuit would have followed but this time it would be because the police were reckless in not calling off the pursuit. Sure in hindsight this was not an ideal situation but the blame rests with the piece of shit who stole the vehicle and caused the accident. Street urchins are given rides off of roads one hundred times a day, many of them bizarre individuals to be certain. Good to know we are responsible for their actions for the rest of the day.

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