By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Marianne Temple and her lawyer, Warren Young, at her sentencing Monday. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

LEBANON - A 92-year-old driver who struck and killed a fellow resident at Otterbein Lebanon retirement community lost her license for good Monday.

Judge Mark Bogen suspended Marianne Temple's driver's license for life after Warren County Prosecutor Andrea Hicks said she didn't think jail was the answer, and the victim's family sent word that they agreed.

Temple faced up to six months in the county jail and a fine of up to $1,000 in the death of 93-year-old Rose Kintigh. Bogen ordered Temple to pay court costs, but did not levy a fine.

Dressed in a powder-blue fleece pantsuit and white turtleneck that matched her close-cropped hair, Temple stood next to her lawyer and said nothing during the brief hearing in Lebanon Municipal Court.

Her husband, who gently held his wife's hand as she slowly entered the courtroom minutes earlier, took a front-row seat.

Defense attorney Warren Young, a former appeals judge, offered apologies for Temple.

"She is profoundly sorry the whole thing happened," he told the judge about the events that killed Kintigh, a retired nurse who had moved to Otterbein two years ago. "If there were any way she can change that, she would do that. She is anxious to readily give up her license."

Kintigh died March 26 after she was struck by Temple's 1998 Buick LeSabre in a parking lot at Otterbein's Kings Activity Center. She was on her way to a blood pressure screening.

Warren County sheriff's officials said Temple was picking up her husband at the activity center, which is located on the campus near Ohio 741.

Temple told investigators that she hit Kintigh after she swerved to avoid a woman in a golf cart, and accidentally pressed the brake and gas pedals simultaneously. After striking Kintigh, Temple's car crashed into the activity center.

Temple pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of vehicular homicide earlier this month.

Kintigh's relatives did not attend Monday's hearing. But her children sent an e-mail to the court, saying their mother, who had a deep Christian faith, wouldn't have wanted Temple to serve any jail time. They said they felt no animosity toward Temple.

"Out of respect for her faith, we, her children, beg the court not to impose any jail sentence on Mrs. Marianne Temple," the unsigned e-mail said.

"Justice will be better served if Mrs. Temple refrains from driving for the rest of her life."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com