BANGOR, Maine — The parents of a Millinocket teacher killed last year in a head-on crash on Route 9 in Eddington on Tuesday urged lawmakers to find a way to determine when people receiving methadone treatments are too impaired to drive.
Donna and Kevin Oliver of Eddington spoke to reporters outside the Penobscot Judicial Center after Scott Ramsdell, 45, of Cutler was sentenced in connection with the death of their daughter, Denise Golding.
Ramsdell, who had received a methadone treatment before the crash, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but 27 months suspended and four years of probation. His driver’s license was suspended for six years.
He got his methadone dose about 35 minutes before the collision, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office. Ramsdell’s methadone dose was increased 43 percent over the nine days before the crash.
“We’d like things be fair and some laws changed so that people could still be helped at the clinics but the people who are outside the clinics doing their daily jobs be safe,” Donna Oliver said Tuesday. “I don’t know how methadone really affects people. I’d like to start with them not driving.”
She suggested that people receiving methadone be required to have a designated driver until a reliable test, similar to the breath test used to determine impairment due to alcohol, can be developed.
Currently, a blood test must be performed to determine the level of methadone in an individual’s system.
Marianne Lynch, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said after the sentencing that Ramsdell’s case illustrated the tension between opiate addicts’ need for treatment and the public’s need that they be able to safely operate cars.
“During my career we’ve made great strides in cases that involve operating under the influence of liquor,” she said. “The laws are very clear with that. Most people understand that. What this case points out is our need to become as vigilant and to put the same amount attention in cases where people are operating under the influence of [other] intoxicants.”
Ramsdell said that he was sorry the crash happened.
“I can’t bring her back,” he said. “That’s all I can do.”
Ramsdell pleaded guilty in March to manslaughter and aggravated operating under the influence of intoxicants.
By pleading guilty, Ramsdell admitted that he was under the influence of methadone and other drugs when he crossed the centerline at about 6 a.m. Jan. 27, 2014, on Route 9 and struck a car driven by Denise Golding, 47, of Eddington. Golding died in the ambulance en route to Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Golding was on her way to meet a colleague with whom she car pooled to Millinocket, the prosecutor said last month. Ramsdell was traveling from Bangor, where he had gotten his methadone dose at a local clinic, to District Court in Machias, where he was to appear on a domestic violence assault charge.
A single mother of four grown children, Golding taught English as a second language to Chinese students at Stearns Junior/Senior High School. She had bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maine.
Ramsdell was released in March after entering his pleas on personal recognizance bail with strict conditions that include living with his wife in Machias, abiding by a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, not using illegal drugs or alcohol and checking in daily with a caseworker from Volunteers of America.
In July, he was charged with violating those conditions. Superior Court Justice Ann Murray ordered that he be held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail until a revocation hearing Wednesday — the same day of his sentencing.
On Tuesday, he admitted he had violated his bail by not telling his case manager with Volunteers of America that he had obtained a prescription for oxycodone from a dentist. Superior Court Justice William Anderson sentenced him to 30 days in jail on that charge, to be served concurrently.
The judge also sentenced him to six months in jail on the drunken driving charge, also to be served concurrently. In addition to jail time, Ramsdell was ordered to pay a $2,100 fine and $418 in restitution on that charges.
Ramsdell’s plea agreement called for four other charges, driving to endanger and three counts of stealing drugs, to be dropped. Anderson dismissed them Tuesday after imposing the sentence.
He faced up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 on the manslaughter charge alone. On the OUI charge, he faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
Ramsdell is not the only driver receiving methadone to be involved in a fatal accident in Penobscot County that led to a manslaughter charge.
Marc Sparks, 29, of Bucksport is being held at the Penobscot County Jail in connection with a similar fatal accident. He was indicted Feb. 27 by the Penobscot County grand jury on one count each of manslaughter, aggravated criminal operating under the influence of intoxicants, causing a death while driving with a suspended license and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.
His trial is scheduled for Sept. 28.
Sparks was driving south Sept. 13 on Route 15 in Orrington when his Dodge sedan failed to slow down and struck an SUV driven by Robin Rie, 59, of Brewer.
Rie had slowed to make a left turn into a vegetable stand in the area of 420 River Road. The impact forced Rie’s vehicle off the road and into a residence before it came to rest, according to the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office. She suffered a serious spinal cord injury in the crash, was revived at the scene by bystanders but died on Sept. 19, about a week later, according to a previously published report.