ROCKLAND, Maine — A 20-year-old Spruce Head man who previously pleaded not guilty to charges related to a 2014 fatal crash is expected to change his plea on Friday afternoon.
A change of plea hearing is scheduled in Knox County Unified Court in the case against Samuel Simmons, who is charged with manslaughter and two counts of driving to endanger, according to court records. He previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.
What he will plead to and whether a sentence agreement has been reached have not been made public. Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody declined to comment Thursday, and a message left with Simmons’ attorney, Eric “Rick” Morse, was not immediately returned.
Simmons’ pleas could either be guilty or no contest so he could still fight a pending civil lawsuit.
Simmons was driving north on Route 1 in Warren on March 20, 2014, when his 1997 GMC Sierra pickup truck crossed the centerline near the intersection of Western Road and struck a southbound 2003 Subaru Forester driven by Alison Low of Warren, police reported.
Low, 38, died at the scene. Her 18-year-old son, Dustin Kimball of Warren, was seriously injured but recovered. Kimball’s girlfriend, Olivia Blachet, was severely injured and spent more than five months at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Earlier this year, Blachet, now 19, received a $5 million judgment in a civil suit against Simmons for negligence. He did not have motor vehicle insurance, however, and it was not made clear how that judgment might be collected.
Low’s family also has filed a negligence lawsuit against Simmons that is pending in court.
Last week, Simmons’ attorney filed a motion with the court to exclude the testimony of an expert put forward by the district attorney’s office, saying her testimony does not fall into the expert category but was more “speculation.”
The district attorney’s office presented a report to the defense from Karen Simone, director of the Northern New England Poison Center, in which she concluded that Simmons was impaired at the time of the crash. She based that conclusion on blood tests taken from Simmons after the crash.
“Based on the limited information provided, it is likely that use of marijuana and amphetamine, combined with less than optimal sleep, contributed to the inability to maintain lane position and therefore the death of the other driver. The recent use of amphetamine suggests that the driver may have been aware of impairment and made an attempt to compensate for it by taking amphetamine,” Simone stated.
Morse also filed a motion with the court last week to exclude the results of blood and urine tests, saying that police did not follow proper protocol for evidence collection, did not follow the standards established by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and did not maintain a chain of custody with the samples.
Neither motion has been heard nor will be if he is convicted through a plea agreement.
Morse had earlier filed a report by Dr. Alan Wartenberg who contended that Simmons was not impaired. Wartenberg is a physician from Attleboro, Massachusetts, with more than 30 years of experience with patients with chemical dependencies.
Simmons told police that he had last smoked half a marijuana cigarette no later than 9:30 p.m. the night before the crash and had gone to bed shortly after 10 p.m. The teen told police he used marijuana regularly to treat anxiety and insomnia, according to the report by the Massachusetts doctor.
Simmons said he had gotten seven hours of sleep and was driving to his job at a car dealership the morning of the crash. His last recollection before the crash was passing the Maritime Farms store on Route 1, according to court documents. He told police he may have fallen asleep.
The doctor’s report pointed out that Simmons was examined by an officer trained in spotting impaired drivers and he did not find that Simmons was impaired. Wartenberg, who said he has testified in numerous trials in Massachusetts on the subject of impaired driving, said the marijuana level in Simmons’ blood was consistent with use no later than 9:30 p.m. the previous night.