Woman gets 2-year prison sentence for crash that burned patrolman

By Ed Runyan

The defendant thanked the victim for saving her life from the destructive path she was on.

YOUNGSTOWN — Adrien Foutz, the 22-year-old Girard woman whose vehicle rear-ended the cruiser driven by Austintown Patrolman Ross Linert in November, is going to prison.

The crash caused a fire that critically injured the officer. On Friday, Foutz pleaded no contest to aggravated vehicular assault in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Judge John M. Durkin found her guilty and sentenced her to two years in prison.

Foutz, who is seven months pregnant, will report to the county jail June 27 to begin her sentence.

Judge Durkin, saying he was honoring the wishes of Linert and his wife, Brenda, agreed to consider releasing Foutz from prison after she serves 18 months if Foutz behaves there.

Foutz’s prior record consists of only minor traffic violations.

Her driver’s license also will be suspended for two years.

Kenneth Cardinal, an assistant county prosecutor, said he honored the Linerts’ wishes for Foutz’s punishment even though he thought the crime deserved the maximum of five years in prison. Foutz also could have received the maximum license suspension of 10 years.

Cardinal said he thought the couple’s wishes showed a great deal of compassion because Linert will suffer through his recovery much longer than Foutz will suffer in prison.

“They’re not asking for retribution in this case but that she stand up and take responsibility for what she has done,” Cardinal said, adding that the Linerts hope Foutz’s punishment will prevent her from committing a similar offense in the future.

Cardinal said the Linerts hoped Foutz might show some compassion in return in the form of an apology to the Austintown community that had shown such tremendous support for the family during its ordeal.

Foutz wrote a letter to the Linerts some months ago, said her defense attorney, J. Gerald Ingram. But Ingram advised Foutz not to send it, he said. Friday, she and Ingram read the letter in court.

Foutz had trouble reading it, crying several times, so Ingram finished it.

“I was going down a destructive path in my life,” Foutz wrote. “The whole experience has changed my outlook on life completely.”

The letter said Foutz had “been doing nothing but praying for [Linert] and your family” since the accident.

It thanked the officer for saving her life because it caused her to address her substance-abuse problems.

Ross and Brenda Linert were not in court but had been in communication with Cardinal throughout plea negotiations, Cardinal said.

The accident happened at 1:08 a.m. Nov. 11 on North Meridian Road at Interstate 680. After the crash, a breath-analysis test registered Foutz’s alcohol level to be 0.279, more than three times the legal limit.

Investigators calculated the speed of the 1995 Cadillac she was driving around 100 mph at the point of impact. They also determined the collision dislodged the fuel sending unit in the cruiser’s gas tank, allowing fuel to come in contact with a spark, causing an explosion and fire.

Linert, 48, was burned over 40 percent of his body — on his face, head, arms, hands and legs — and remains off work as he recovers at home. He had spent nearly two months in a medically induced coma just after the accident. He had multiple operations for skin grafts.

Foutz, of Iowa Avenue, told a state trooper she drank three shots and two beers at an Austintown bar just before the crash.

runyan@vindy.com