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Driver indicted in deaths of her unborn child, woman
TweetStaff report
Youngstown
A Canfield woman is indicted on aggravated vehicular homicide charges in the April deaths of her unborn child and another woman.
A Mahoning County grand jury indicted 25-year-old Raechel Zorger of Calla Road on Thursday. She is charged with two second-degree felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one second-degree misdemeanor count of child endangering.
Darla Schumacher, 55, of Detwiler Road, was killed just after 5 p.m. April 12 when the car she was driving collided with Zorger’s car. The accident took place on Detwiler just south of Western Reserve Road in Beaver Township.
Zorger, who was six months pregnant at the time, drove left of center, causing the accident, according to police.
She had a blood-alcohol level of 0.259, said Trooper Brad Bucey, of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The legal limit in Ohio is 0.08.
“The prosecutor felt that due to the high level of alcohol and the crash that led to the deaths, that both [homicide] charges were needed,” he said.
Bucey said charges weren’t filed right away because they were waiting for the coroner’s report to determine if it was the alcohol or the crash that killed Zorger’s fetus.
“It was the crash that killed the child,” he said.
A warrant was issued Thursday for Zorger’s arrest, though she wasn’t in police custody as of Thursday evening.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said though he knows of cases in which a mother is charged in the death of her fetus, but doesn’t know of any in Mahoning County.
“I don’t specifically recall any other cases like this one,” he said.
Ohio Revised Code states that if an “unborn member of the species homo sapiens, who is or was carried in the womb of another” is killed, the resulting charges can range from aggravated murder to negligent homicide to aggravated vehicular homicide, depending on the circumstances.
Zorger’s arraignment date is pending. If convicted, she faces up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 on each felony charge and up to three months in prison and a fine of up to $750 on the misdemeanor charge.
In addition to these new charges, Zorger has been charged in two other incidents involving alcohol in the past five years.
In February 2009, Zorger was arrested by Beaver Township police after a domestic dispute with a former boyfriend, according to a police report.
Zorger and the male were both intoxicated and combative with officers while their 5-month-old baby was in the house.
She pleaded no contest to charges of child endangering, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct while intoxicated and was found guilty by a judge. She was fined, placed on one year’s probation and ordered to seek drug and alcohol treatment, according to court records.
In April 2006, Shenango Township police arrested Zorger, who was 20 at the time, and charged her with driving under the influence.
As a first-time offender, she was entered into Pennsylvania Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, allowing her to stay out of jail, avoid a one-year license suspension and keep her record clean, according to court documents.
Comments
She had best not stay out of jail this time...
A human fetus not an unborn child just like a human being is not an undead corpse. Respect the truth, not the fanatical dogma dished out abortion foes.
It's a fetus until it's born. Thanks to it's mother, it won't be born alive. Either way, this woman needs to be kept out of society. She's already proven she doesn't belong among decent SOBER people. Lock her up and don't let her out for a long, long, long, time. And make sure she can't have anymore children. In an alcoholic binge she might kill them too.
Wow, I wonder where the typical comments from Stan and the rest of his motley crew are? This woman should be taken off the streets immediately. Lock this animal up and throw away the key!
I went to Mrs. Schumacher's calling hours and even though I did not personally know her, I watched her 3 children and husband mourn her untimely loss. Ms. Zorger should be given the maximum time in jail. She killed 2 innocent people. I saw a daughter that will never get to experience the birth of her own child with her mom. Ms. Zorger not only ruined her life, by destroyed the lives of so many others!
LOCK HER UP!
Attis,
Since Zorger has been charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular HOMICIDE and the legal definition of Homicide is "the killing of a human being due to the act or omission of another" this is legally an unborn child, or a human being. This is not fanatical dogma being dished out by abortion foes. Now, STFU. This is a tragedy that is going to have profound affects on many families.
If they would've just thrown the book at her the first time rather than letting her go to "rehab" then this would never have happened. And where is the father of the baby I wonder...
The child/fetus, depending on one's POV, is lucky. The way this idiot was knocking back the sauce, the poor thing would have been born with an advanced, incurable case of fetal alcohol syndrome and faced a lifetime of misery. The mother (only in the purely biological sense) should definitely be prevented from ever again becoming pregnant..
wineywoman :
"Wow, I wonder where the typical comments from Stan and the rest of his motley crew are? This woman should be taken off the streets immediately. Lock this animal up and throw away the key!"
This case confuses me . The libs say that a fetus is not a life . So how could they charge her with taking a life ? Is there any law against abortion by motor vehicle ? Plenty of these cases where there was prosecution for taking the life of a child in the womb should be cited and abortion shoul be criminalized once again .
Since the ORC reads that it is unlawfully to end the life of a Homo Sapien in another's womb, it sounds like this would not apply to her. It was in her own womb, so it sounds like it would be no more than a "late term abortion". The law needs to be rewritten for there to be a conviction. I am sure her Atty. will look at this as a defense. What a tragedy for all! Please stop procreating if you think booze is more important than lives!
She was also picked up in 2006 in New Castle for drunk driving at the age of 20
http://www.ncnewsonline.com/dailyreco...
Darla was a wonderful, loving, happy and friendly woman. She was my Aunt-In-Law and our family is devistated. This woman was given too many chances in our over-lenient justice system. I hope this time she is taught a lesson with jail time and intense rehabilitation. So many lives are ruined b/c of one woman's poor judgement.