NORWALK—A 16-year-old New Canaan girl accused of striking and killing a jogger while driving an SUV in March will be prosecuted as an adult. The charge against her of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle requires she be tried in state Superior Court, rather than Juvenile Court.
The accident occurred the morning of . An affidavit Norwalk Police prepared to obtain an arrest warrant for her alleges she was using her iPhone to look at the New Canaan High School website when she struck the jogger, 44-year-old Norwalk resident Kenneth Dorsey.
In the affidavit, Norwalk Sgt. David B. O’Connor says the girl’s iPhone was seized as evidence and given to a Wilton sergeant who is experienced in performing forensic analyses of cell phones and computer devices.
Norwalk Police received a 911 call reporting the accident at about 9:31:26 a.m., the affidavit says, and the Wilton sergeant allegedly found her iPhone was connecting to the high school website two seconds before that. O’Connor wrote that in order for her iPhone to be contacting that site, she would have had to have the phone “in her hand and be pressing keys to enter data into the phone.”
She was also charged with using a mobile telephone or electronic device while driving and being under the age of 18, even if a “hands-free” accessory is available. (No one may send or receive text messages while driving.)
And she was charged with failure to drive in the proper lane.
Dorsey was unconscious but breathing when emergency personnel arrived at the scene, but later died at Norwalk Hospital. O’Connor says hospital records show he suffered head and spine injuries, and an autopsy found he died of blunt force trauma due to an auto accident.
She was arrested last Saturday by warrant at Norwalk Police headquarters and then released on a promise to appear in court.
In the affidavit, O’Connor includes accounts of the accident provided by two motorists, one of whom described seeing a body flying through the air.
A passenger in a car reported seeing a jogger running southbound on New Canaan Avenue, positioned between the curb and the white line that delineates the shoulder of the road from its travel portion.
She was driving a 2001 Toyota 4-Runner southbound when the accident occurred. A motorist who was driving behind her reportedly told police he saw the SUV “suddenly pull to the left back towards the travel portion of the roadway from the shoulder.” He then reportedly said he saw dust kicked up from the roadway shoulder and then saw Dorsey laying on the shoulder.
He reported parking behind the 4-Runner and finding its driver "crying and hysterical."
The 4-Runner was towed to police headquarters and examined by a Norwalk Department of Public Works mechanic. O’Connor wrote the mechanic found no apparent mechanical defects with the vehicle that could have caused the accident.
A person convicted of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle can receive a prison sentence of up to six months or be fined up to $1,000, or both.
She is scheduled to be arraigned in state Superior Court in Norwalk May 24.
