When Tracie Alfieri called police on Nov. 27 to report a car accident she had seen, authorities already knew who she was. And they already suspected that she had done much more than witness the fatal crash on Interstate 71.
The police - tipped off by at least two motorists, including one who followed Mrs. Alfieri - were looking into whether the Mount Washington woman had caused the accident, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said Friday.
Mrs. Alfieri, 23, is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault. She is accused of causing the accident by slamming on her brakes in front of a woman she had just cut off. Prosecutors said she apparently was angry at the way Mrs. Andrews had merged into the traffic.
''If you act in a reckless manner, whether you actually physically strike someone doesn't matter,'' Mr. Deters said, referring to Mrs. Alfieri's alleged role. ''Damage is not an issue. It's the behavior and the mental culpability.''
When Rene Andrews, swerved to avoid Mrs. Alfieri, she plowed into a parked tractor-trailer, Mr. Deters said. Mrs. Alfieri did not stop, police reported
Mrs. Andrews, who was ejected, suffered life-threatening injuries. Her six-month-old fetus died almost instantly. She is recovering in a long-term care facility.
Friday, Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker ordered Mrs. Alfieri held on $100,000 bond. She pleaded not guilty.
''We will be putting on a vigorous defense,'' attorney Thomas Koustmer said.
Mrs. Alfieri is the first local person to be charged under a new Ohio law that makes it a crime to kill a fetus (legal abortions are excluded). But she is one of many charged locally with the fairly new crime of aggravated vehicular assault, Mr. Deters said.
''About a year and a half ago, we really started pushing on the vehicular assault charges, and they've become a lot more common,'' Mr. Deters said of the law enacted about five years ago.
He started promoting the law when members of MADD complained that drunken drivers often were not charged with anything more than DUI. ''We made the police agencies a little more sensitive to it,'' he said.
DRIVER INDICTED Published Jan. 3, 1997
