Family of Victims Angry At Light Sentence In Fatal DUI

Former Officer Crashes Car, Killing Four and Injuring Another

In a recent hearing at a St. Louis courthouse, the judge sentenced a 12-year veteran of the St. Louis police department to 8 years in prison.

The tragic event occurred on March 21, 2009, at about 1:45 AM. A car driving five friends who had immigrated to the US from India was struck by an off duty police officer, killing all but one of the passengers and leaving the officer permanently disabled.

Prosecutors say that the law enforcement officer, 43-year old Christine Miller, was highly intoxicated at the time of the collision. A receipt found in her car showed she had purchased five Cosmopolitans at a local bar that night before getting behind the wheel. A BAC test performed nearly an hour after the crash returned a result of .229 percent, almost three times the legal limit.

Miller pled guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of second-degree assault.

Family of Victims Express Disbelief at Courts Leniency

The lone survivor of the car, Nitesh Adusumilli, says his memory has a hole from that night. He remembers going bowling with his fiancée and her friends from graduate school, and eating a late meal at an Indian restaurant before driving home. But he cannot recall any details of the crash itself. His fiancée, Anita Lakshmids Veerapaneni, 23, was killed by the drunken officer, along with two fellow students from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, and a third mutual friend of the couple.

At the sentencing hearing, Adusumilli said he thought her 8-year sentence was not nearly enough. “I thought it would be much longer,” he told reporters afterwards. “Killing four people and it’s just eight years. Can you believe that?”

Though Miller was suspended from the department after she was charged, she officially resigned a week before the sentencing.

Seek Justice With a Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have been injured as a result of another’s negligence, you may deserve financial restitution for the pain and suffering you have been caused. With the help of an experienced St. Louis personal injury attorney at the Law Office of Meyerkord and Meyerkord, you may get the compensation you are entitled to.

Please, contact a St Louis auto accident lawyer without delay!