Woman's Death an Accident, Jury Says

3/2/2005 - Daily Herald

By: Christy Gutowski, Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer

A young driver with marijuana in his system most likely fell asleep before his car struck a woman standing on the edge of a road during a traffic stop in Lombard, officials said Tuesday.

They also revealed police stopped the woman’s car early on Dec. 18 on suspicion she was under the influence of alcohol – a point later proven by toxicology results.

The new details emerged during a coroner’s inquest into the death of 35-year-old Michele M. Dabrowski. A jury found the Lemont woman died of multiple injuries. Her death was ruled an accident.

Dabrowski was on her way home after a holiday celebration with co-workers at about 2 a.m. when Lombard officer James Brown stopped her Chevrolet Impala on Butterfield Road east of Fairfield Street.

Brown testified Tuesday Dabrowski drove erratically through a shopping mall parking lot before making a handful of illegal maneuvers, including a U-turn against a red light.

Brown said he initiated the traffic stop and asked Dabrowski to exit her car after she did poorly on three impairment tests, including counting and reciting the alphabet backward.

Dabrowski complied. But standing behind her car, she declined to submit to field sobriety tests because of a health condition affecting her balance, the officer testified. Brown said he asked her if she could get a ride home since she appeared "borderline" intoxicated.

Dabrowski began crying, he said. He repeated the question a couple of more times before tragedy struck.

"All she said is ‘my husband,’ and at that point, I looked over my shoulder and saw the vehicle approaching," Brown testified. "All I could do was basically fall out of the way to avoid being struck myself."

Dabrowski, a registered nurse at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, never made it back home to her husband and two young sons. Her husband, David Dabrowski, choked back emotion while listening to the graphic testimony.

His wife suffered massive injuries, including a severed leg, after being struck by a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis driven by 18-year-old Cameron Tyson of Bellwood. Tyson had dropped off a friend in Glen Ellyn and most likely fell asleep at the wheel, officials said. He did not brake.

DuPage County Sheriff’s Detective David Sand said Tyson admitted to him he had two sips of beer and one puff of a marijuana cigarette earlier that evening at a party in Stone Park.

Coroner’s officials said toxicology tests showed Dabrowski was 1 ½ times above the legal blood alcohol level of .08 several hours after the crash.

The Dabrowski family filed a lawsuit against Lombard accusing police of negligence, alleging she was ordered to stand on the road "in a lane of traffic" during the stop.

The family’s lawyer, Michael Krzak, argues the death was avoidable. He questions the reliability of the tests involving Michele Dabrowski’s impairment. Still, if she was impaired, police should have exercised even more care, the lawyer said.

"That’s all the more reason to protect her and keep her out of harm’s way," Krzak said.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett has not filed charges against Tyson. He recently asked for a more detailed analysis of the motorist’s level of THC – the active ingredient found in marijuana – from a forensic toxicology lab in Missouri.

Tyson, a high school student, attended the coroner’s inquest hearing. He declined to testify after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.