By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN,
mprellahan@dailylocal.com
|
WEST CHESTER – A former Chester
County police officer was sent to state prison Thursday for a 2012 “drugged
driving” crash that took the life of a West Caln woman.
Denise Knoke, 44, of West
Bradford was under the influence of Oxycodone and other prescription drugs when
she drove through an intersection in West Caln as a woman who lived nearby was
crossing the road on her afternoon walk, striking her.
The woman, 86-year-old Alice
Stephens of West Caln, died of her injuries several days later after lingering
in pain, said the prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Mark Conte.
Knoke, a one-time K-9 police
officer, entered a plea of guilty to the charges of homicide by vehicle while
DUI and DUI, as well as a summary traffic citation. She was sentenced to 3½ to
seven years in state prison, six months more than the mandatory three-year
minimum sentence for such cases.
Conte told Senior Judge Charles
Smith, who accepted the plea and handed down the sentence, that the penalty was
higher for the charge because it was Knoke’s third drunk driving charge, and
her second within 10 years.
Conte negotiated the plea
agreement with Knoke’s attorney, Vincent DiFabio of Paoli. The prosecutor said
Stephens’ three daughters attended the proceeding and spoke about their mother
and the pain they felt in losing her to the crash.
“They spoke about what a
vibrant and active woman she was, and how she was the hub of their family,”
Conte said afterwards. “But they also described how devastating it was to see
this woman who had never had any health problems linger in the state she was in
the days before her death.”
According to court records, the
crash occurred at about 1:45 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2012 at the intersection of
Telegraph Road and Sunnyview Court in West Caln. Township officer William Smith
said when he arrived at the scene he saw an elderly woman lying on her side
next to a 1999 green Chevrolet Malibu. She was complaining of shoulder pain on
her right side as she was treated by emergency personnel.
Smith saw skid marks on the
road, as well as items that had been knocked off the elderly woman when she was
struck by the car. He approached the woman who was identified as the driver of
the car, and asked what happened. The driver, Knoke, said she could not clearly
remember striking the pedestrian.
As she was speaking, Smith
said, he noticed that her pupils were constricted and her speech was slurred.
Knoke admitted that she was on several medications, and had been coming from a
doctor’s appointment for her recurring pain. When Smith asked if she normally
drove while under medication, Knoke said she usually got a ride to and from her
appointments.
She was taken to Brandywine
Hospital where her blood was drawn and later tested for drugs. The lab results
showed that she had recently used Oxycodone in significant amounts that would
have made her unsafe to operate a car, Smith wrote in his criminal complaint.
Stephens, who had also been
taken to the hospital for injuries she suffered, died as a result of those
injuries on Dec. 21, 2012. Knoke was charged in February.
Conte said his review of
criminal records showed that Knoke had been charged with DUI in 1993, for which
she was apparently given ARD, and then again in 2010.
“Obviously, everyone should
know not to drive under the influence,” he said after the sentencing. “But a
former police officer should know full well the serious consequences that can
come fro driving while impaired.
“Unfortunately, those
consequences became too real in this case.”
Knoke had been on a disability
from the East Brandywine Regional Police Department at the time of the crash.
She made a short apology to Stephens’ family. “She said she wishes she could
substitute her life for that of Mrs. Stephens,” Conte said.
Knoke was a K-9 officer in East
Brandywine when her charge, Nelo, a Czech Shepherd, escaped from her when she
was walking in the woods near her home in late November 2006. The dog’s was
found in a marshy area of the woods several days later.
