Emilee Gagnon was a 21 year old woman from Holliston, Mass. In 2013 she left Holliston for a solo cross country bicycle trip. She was riding to raise money to benefit people who have MS. On September 23, 2013, at 7:20 pm, Emilee was killed when motorist Lynne Smith smashed into Emilee from behind on State Route 163 near the quaint Lake Erie town of Port Clinton, Ohio. Smith claimed she “couldn’t see” Emilee because the setting sun was in her eyes…
Smith was charged under Ohio’s Vehicular Homicide statutes. She cut a deal with prosecutors in which she plead No Contest to Vehicular Manslaughter, a second degree misdemeanor under Ohio law. Smith was found guilty and given the max sentence- 90 days in jail, fine, license suspension. Judge Hany did not order ANY jail time – rather he held that over her head in the event she did anything else wrong. So she got, in essence, two years of being able to do whatever she wanted to do without restriction so long as she kept her nose clean & stayed out of trouble.
Fast forward two years… To her credit, Lynn Smith kept her nose clean and stayed out of trouble. The Court determined that she had “paid her debt to society” and terminated her criminal case.
Now… this is NOT a post about lousy driving, criminal laws with no teeth, crappy sentences for convicted killers or stupid motorist excuses like “I was driving west, towards the setting sun and I couldn’t see… but I kept moving a dangerous two ton machine forward at 50mph… “
No… that’s all for another day…
Rather, this is a post about hiding criminal records… specifically Lynne Smith’s criminal record. You see, in June 2018 Lynne Smith filed a Petition to Seal the record of her conviction – to box it up, shutter it up, pull it off the InterBlawg, and hide it from everyone that she was a convicted killer!
So Smith files her a motion with the same court that convicted her and the same judge who didn’t send her to jail will hear the motion. Emilee’s parents are informed and loudly object. The Prosecutor files an objection. A hearing is set in July. Emilee’s parents make arrangements to fly into Ohio from Massachusetts, where Emilee once lived.
Emilee’s parents reached out to me for some help. I was able to get local cycling advocates involved and the Court received MANY letters from the cycling community with their thoughts on whether sealing the record was a good idea.
The hearing was held on July 27. I drove up to Ottawa County, about a 4 hour drive from Cincinnati, for the hearing primarily to support the Gagnon family on behalf of the cycling community. I thought there would likely be a 20-minute hearing at which the Prosecutor and defense lawyer would make their arguments to the Court.
We all arrived. I had coffee with Emilee’s parents and aunt and heard a LOT about what a beautiful, loving, funny, caring person Emilee was. We then met up with the Prosecutor and waited… and waited… in the courtroom. Eventually, the Judge asked us to meet with Ms. Smith directly, so we all sat in a courtroom with Ms. Smith & talked a bit about what she, & the family had been through. Then the Court thought things would go better if there were no lawyers in the room. That went on for quite a while, without a resolution.
Finally, the Court announced that the hearing would start in the afternoon. The Prosecutor decided that since the statute required that the “State” produce a reason for not sealing the record, he would call ME to the witness stand to talk about that issue. I quickly went from Spectator to Expert Witness! The statute itself is rather vague about how the hearing would proceed, and what evidence was needed, but since I had a background in researching these issues, from both a legal and statistical perspective, and since I had testified before the legislature on Bike Law issues, I was drafted as an “expert witness” by the Prosecutor.
I watched the family’s heartbreaking testimony about the impact losing Emilee has had on their family and how sealing the record would really amount to a slap in their face as they continued their own healing process. Ms. Smith testified about her desire to have this “behind her” but cited no real reason to seal the record beyond that. I was called to the stand and talked about the use of data from case files by those drafting laws, legislators seeking to amend or draft new laws, researchers trying to determine if police or the courts were properly handling cases and more.
After the hearing was over we thought the Court might issue a ruling from the bench. It did not… so we waited…a month… two months… three… summer turned into fall… finally… the notice arrives…
Today I received the Judge Hany’s decision. Granted… the record is SEALED.
The Court found that Expungment was to be granted liberally and that the nature of the crime really didn’t play any role in the decision whether or not to seal the record. The Court received and acknowledged the numerous letters sent in by community members, and acknowledged the family’s grief. However, these things are not really factors under the Statute. The court did not feel that my testimony met the State’s burden in proving a reason why the record should be kept open. The court said that, at best, the evidence presented by the prosecutor was perhaps equal to, but did not outweigh, the “privacy interests” of Ms. Smith. He described Emilee ‘s death as the result of “a momentary but ultimately fatal lapse in judgment and not one where the applicant’s state of mind was in any way, malicious or repugnant to a state interest.” The Court stated the the statute which allows for the sealing of records is “…a manifestation of the traditional Western civilization concepts of sin, punishment, atonement and forgiveness…”
So the Record of Ms. Smith’s conviction as a killer is officially Sealed.
Now, I have data from the crash and the criminal case, which I will certainly keep online so the case won’t “go away” and anyone searching the internet can find it. But Ms. Smith can know that if she applies for a new job her employer won’t know that she was convicted of vehicular manslaughter…
The Crash Report tells the story – Lynne Smith was driving her car westbound on State Route 163… she was, apparently, shocked to discover that the sun sets in the west at or near sunset. As she drove her 2001 Ford Escape westbound on SR 163 towards the setting sun she was “having trouble seeing” – instead of slowing or stopping she chose to try to adjust her visor.
SR 163 is a long, straight stretch of 2 lane rural highway southeast of Toledo. Emily Gagnon would have been “visible” to anyone driving westbound on SR163 for hundreds of feet. It should have been very easy for Ms. Smith to have “seen” Emily riding her bicycle in the lane ahead if she were paying attention to the road ahead.
However, the sun glare apparently interrupted Ms. Smith for quite a few seconds as she drove westbound at speed and then slammed into Emilee Gagnon and her bicycle.
She claimed that she was adjusting her sun visor to account for the glare…but…when asked about whether she had completed that prior to impact she said it was “Already Down”-
Lynne Smith was charged with Vehicular Homicide- a misdemeanor in Ohio. To have been charged more aggressively, with a felony of Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, prosecutors would have had to have proved that one of the aggravating factors was present. These include among other things- No license – Reckless driving – Alcohol. It’s a much tougher standard to prove than the “criminal negligence” needed to prove Negligent Vehicular Homicide. The statute can be found here.
Lynne Smith eventually entered a No Contest plea to Vehicular Homicide and was convicted. She received no jail time but, rather, was placed on probation for 3 years. After her period of probation was over Lynne Smith asked the court to SEAL her record.
The Court agreed, apparently believing some “privacy” interest of Ms. Lynne Smith was more important than preserving a record of her fatal driving error.
Here’s a link to stories about the crash
https://fox8.com/news/biker-killed-during-fundraising-effort/
https://www.wcvb.com/article/cancer-survivor-struck-and-killed-in-cycling-accident/8025875#
Here’s a Link to the Conviction:
https://www.toledoblade.com/local/courts/2014/05/01/Area-woman-convicted-in-crash-killing-bicyclist/stories/20140430160
Here’s a Link to the Sentencing:
https://www.toledoblade.com/local/courts/2014/08/05/Driver-sentenced-in-bicyclist-s-death/stories/20140804171
Here’s a Link to a story about stealing the record
:https://www.toledoblade.com/local/courts/2018/10/22/ottawa-county-judge-grants-lynee-smith-record-be-sealed/stories/20181022135
Here’s the story about sealing the record –
PORT CLINTON — An Ottawa County Municipal Court Judge granted a woman’s request to have her record sealed after she was found guilty of fatally killing a bicyclist in 2014.
This year, motorist Lynne Smith, 53, of Martin, Ohio, requested her record be sealed — or not accessible.
In 2014, Ms. Smith pleaded no contest in Ottawa County Municipal Court to vehicular manslaughter, a second-degree misdemeanor, for the Sept. 23, 2013 crash that killed Emilee Gagnon, 21, of Holliston, Mass. Miss Gagnon was riding a bicycle on State Rt. 163 several miles east of Genoa as part of a cross-country trip to raise money for multiple-sclerosis research and to spread awareness about the disease.
Ms. Smith said she was driving home from work when she was blinded by the setting sun.
Ms. Smith was found guilty, and Judge Frederick Hany II placed her on probation for three years, suspended her driver’s license for two years, and ordered her to pay a $750 fine and court costs.
The judge ruled last week the nature of the offense is not a basis to deny the applicant’s petition, the state’s proof did not support a need for the common good, and the applicant satisfied the criteria for the need to seal a record.
The judge recognized this was Ms. Smith’s only criminal conviction and both her and Miss Gagnon’s families are broken, he wrote in a judgment entry.
“All agree that the granting of Ms. Smith’s application herein will never seal the emotions and tragic events of that fatal day. The very nature of all vehicular manslaughter cases causes deep and emotional wounds which can never be fully repaired or healed,” Judge Hany wrote.
Miss Gagnon’s family opposed sealing Ms. Smith’s record.
© 2024.
Re-reading this episode again today. I still shudder when I think of this fatal crash.
Reasoning behind sealing the record has this statement:
“He described Emilee ‘s death as the result of “a momentary but ultimately fatal lapse in judgment and not one where the applicant’s state of mind was in any way, malicious or repugnant to a state interest.”
So, we cyclists are essentially nothing with regards to a driver making a momentary lapse in judgement. Sick logic in my opinion.