Alicia Alampi
Alicia Alampi leaves court. Alampi is accused of hitting and killing a pedestrian near Destiny USA before driving away last December.
(Ellen M. Blalock | eblalock@syracuse.com)
Clay, NY -- An off-duty Onondaga County sheriff's deputy admitted leaving the scene of what turned out to be a fatal crash with Alicia Alampi last December near Destiny USA, according to deputies who testified today in court.
But later, he called a another cop after realizing what had happened.
Dan Myers, an sheriff's investigator, had been at the mall with Alampi when they left in separate vehicles around midnight Dec. 13, the deputies said he told them.
Myers started out in front, but Alampi later passed him on Park Street. He swerved around what he described as debris in the road. That's when Alampi suddenly pulled over and called him on a cell phone.
She had hit something. Myers, who had pulled over behind her, looked around and saw something in the road that he described as looking like an old tire.
What he saw was almost certainly the crumpled body of Robert BeVard, a pedestrian police said was hit by Alampi's 2014 Jeep Cherokee. BeVard was wearing dark clothing and a dark hood when he was struck.
But after asking Alampi how much damage had been done to her vehicle, he suggested they continue back to her house to check the damage.
With that, they left BeVard and drove back to Alampi's house at 4994 Surrey Lane, in Clay.
That's the testimony from Deputy James Redshaw, who testified today in County Court.
Alicia Alampi mug shot
From that point, authorities said that several things happened in a row:
Someone called 911 around 12:30 a.m. about the victim lying in the middle of the street. Several Syracuse police officers responded and quickly found Alampi's license plate, which had fallen off after hitting BeVard. It was partially covered in blood.
Officer Mike Kowalski checked for a pulse, but it was too late. BeVard was dead.
Meanwhile, a second officer relayed the license plate information to emergency dispatchers, who quickly traced it to Alampi's address in Clay.
Several sheriff's deputies responded, including Redshaw, who was sitting at Clay Town Park doing traffic enforcement.
About two minutes after Redshaw left for Surrey Road, he got a call from Myers. "I need your help," Myers told him, Redshaw testified.
Redshaw said he was going to a call at Surrey Road and couldn't help Myers. That's when Myers dropped the bombshell: That's where he was. He needed police right away.
Redshaw kept driving. He heard confirmation that BeVard had been killed. He called Myers back to deliver the news. Myers just repeated that he needed help as soon as possible.
Minutes later, Redshaw arrived at Surrey Lane. Deputy Dan Klasen had already arrived.
Klasen testified he was surprised to see his colleague, Myers, there but initially assumed he had come in to help with the investigation.
"Hey Dan, what's going on?" Klasen asked. "Nothing," Myers replied, according to testimony.
That's when Klasen realized something more was going on. But he continued past his fellow deputy to Alampi. She admitted she was the driver.
There was blood and front-end damage to her SUV. She was distraught. Several officers described her being hysterical and complaining about damage to her new SUV.
Eventually, Klasen took her inside to calm things down. Redshaw followed and asked Myers about what happened.
More police officers arrived from Syracuse. They took over the investigation.
Alampi was brought downtown for questioning. Officer David Demand described her nervous, crying and repeating herself during the 10 to 15-minute car ride. He smelled the odor of alcohol.
After failing a sobriety test at police headquarters, Alampi was later asked to submit to a blood sample. She refused at first.
But then Officer Lonnie Dotson warned her that they would get a warrant to take her to a hospital and force her to submit if she didn't do it voluntarily.
Alampi agreed, saying there was no way she was going to a hospital, because she worked at one.
Alampi was manager of patient access services at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center. She no longer works there, a spokeswoman said today.
Her lawyer, Steve Cambareri, requested today's hearing so the judge could decide if there was probable cause to arrest Alampi. Among other things, he's contesting the legality of the blood sample used to charge Alampi with drunken driving.
That's important because she's been charged with vehicular manslaughter under the theory that she was drunk at the time she hit BeVard. She's also charged with leaving the scene of a fatal crash, another serious felony, under the theory that she knew -- or should have known -- that she hit someone, not an object.
Alampi admitted to police that she had "a large glass of wine" that night, according to the criminal complaint. But she contests that she knew she'd struck a person.
She was very upset at Myers after the crash, one deputy testified. She kept saying there's no way she could have killed someone.
Myers has not been charged. The sheriff's office conducted an internal investigation into his involvement, but the results have not been made public.
Update: The exhaustive hearing that detailed most of the initial investigation concluded around 3 p.m. this afternoon. State Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti issued preliminary rulings finding the deputies credible and ruling against Alicia Alampi. -- 3:26 p.m.