LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 49 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ Oct. 12 – 18, 2017 ]
Tequila: Loudoun’s next libation
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Supervisors Order Safety Audit of Evergreen Mills BY RENSS GREENE
Danielle Nadler/Loudoun Now
From left, Anna Thorner, Dale Freeman, Candy Baracat-Donovan and Elizabeth Freeman, friends of the Schulz family, speak to the press after the Oct. 10 hearing.
‘NO CONTEST’
Weeks of mourning and activism by Loudouners after four lives were lost in six weeks on Evergreen Mills Road have turned into action by the county Board of Supervisors. Erin Kaplan was killed and three of her family members seriously injured at the intersection of Evergreen Mills and Watson Road when her car was hit by a food truck converted from a bus. Only weeks before, a Suffolk woman, Courtney Ashe, apparently lost control of her vehicle in a heavy rainstorm while traveling along Evergreen Mills Road and drove into Sycolin Creek. The car was found upside down in the creek three days later, with Ashe’s body and the bodies of her 9-year-old cousin and 5-year-old son inside. Last week, the board unanimously ordered a safety audit of both Evergreen Mills and Watson Road. Kaplan’s husband, Faran, and one of her children were at the Board of Supervisors Oct. 3 to ask for action. Faran Kaplan said it appears his wife’s life was taken by “somebody that was trying to avoid Rt. 50.” EVERGREEN MILLS >> 34
Miller Found Guilty in Infant’s Death BY NORMAN K. STYER
J
ohn Miller IV was found guilty this week of two misdemeanor charges resulting from the death of infant Tristan Schulz Oct. 10. He was killed while being pushed in a stroller across a Lansdowne crosswalk last summer. In front of a courtroom filled with the Schulz family and supporters, Miller entered a plea of no contest to a charge of reckless driving and guilty to failure to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. He faces a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail, plus fines and a year-long loss of his driver’s license.
The pleas came one month after county prosecutors dropped a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter, after concluding that evidence in the case would not support the elements required to obtain a conviction. At the request of Deputy County Attorney Sean Morgan, Circuit Court Judge Stephen Sincavage agreed to schedule a two-day sentencing hearing—highly unusual for misdemeanor convictions. The hearing is expected to afford family members their first opportunity to talk publicly about the lasting impact Miller’s action will have. In the courtroom, the family’s
supporters wore powder blue ribbons and some held T-shirts that displayed a larger blue ribbon. Tristan’s parents, Mindy and Rod Schulz, sat in the front row, with Mindy clutching a stuffed toy that belonged to her son, who was five months old when Miller’s SUV drove over the baby’s stroller as he accelerated when the traffic signal turned green. Early evidence in the case suggested that Miller was on his phone at the time of the incident, prompting the initial manslaughter charge. However, data collected from the
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GUILTY >> 34
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Sophia Kaplan, who was injured in the crash that killed her mother Erin, attended the Board of Supervisors meeting Oct. 3 among a crowd of green-clad supporters to ask for safety improvements to the famously dangerous road.
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