
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 21, 1994                   TAG: 9405230169
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE WOMAN INDICTED IN TRAFFIC DEATH

A Roanoke woman authorities say was driving on a suspended license has been indicted by a Pulaski County grand jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the December traffic death of a West Virginia woman.

The indictment, handed up Friday in Pulaski County Circuit Court, accuses Catherine Marie York of killing Ruby Ernestine McGhee, 69, of Yukon, W.Va., on Dec. 17 when the car York was driving collided with the car in which McGhee was a passenger.

The grand jury also returned misdemeanor indictments accusing York of reckless driving and driving on a suspended license. Her license had been suspended as a result of a conviction for driving under the influence.

The involuntary manslaughter charge was dismissed in March during a preliminary hearing in General District Court. Judge Edward Turner noted that the consequences of York's driving down the wrong side of a divided highway were serious but did not indicate criminal wrongdoing.

Felony cases dismissed at the lower court level may be taken to a grand jury to consider for direct indictment.

According to testimony at the March preliminary hearing, York was driving near Dublin, after her license was suspended, when she made a turn into the wrong lane of a three-lane section of U.S. 11. In a chain-reaction crash, her car struck a dump truck and forced it into oncoming traffic, crushing a four-wheel-drive vehicle driven by Robert Rutherford of Radford. McGhee was Rutherford's passenger.

According to testimony, York told police she was unfamiliar with the area and did not realize she had turned into the wrong lane.

York's attorney, Public Defender David Warburton, argued that York may have been guilty of bad judgment, but she was not criminally liable.

But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Plott countered that York's driving while her license was suspended made a difference.

Plott called the case a mixed question of fact and law for a trial judge or jury to decide.

Turner, in dismissing the charges but telling Plott he could seek direct indictments, said the case "may very well make some new law."

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB