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| Couple sues over near-fatal accident involving corrections worker |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/21/2005 |
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One co-worker saw him slumped at his desk, a syringe cover sticking out of his mouth. Others saw him disappear to the bathroom or his car for an hour at a time carrying a small black bag. Finally, Mark Aldrich's supervisors couldn't take any more. They reassigned the community corrections worker to his house pending an investigation of drug use. He was told not to leave his home between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday without permission. But at 4:42 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2003, he was driving near Port Orchard when his car crossed the centerline, hit one car and plowed head-on into Barbara Starkel's Chevy pickup. Starkel, 55, was in a coma for 10 days, and even now has trouble with her memory, her balance and with nightmares. She and her husband are suing Aldrich and the Department of Corrections, saying it should have kept better tabs on him. "The reason they removed him from the work place is they believed he was a potential hazard," said their Seattle attorney, Tony Shapiro. "If his conduct is a risk in the work place, it's certainly a risk to the unsuspecting public." But state Assistant Attorney General Mark Jobson contends that employers have limited control over their employees - especially when employees aren't where they're supposed to be. "At the time of the accident, he wasn't acting on behalf of the state. He was not driving a state vehicle and he was not on state business," Jobson said. "The state's not liable for Mark Aldrich's actions unless (the Starkels) can actually prove that he was working when the accident occurred." The Port Orchard couple's lawsuit, reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Friday, was filed this month in Kitsap County Superior Court. There is no evidence that Aldrich was high when the collision occurred, despite a subsequent arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and a state trooper's assertion, in that unrelated incident, that Aldrich had "massive intravenous track marks" on his arms. Aldrich was fired in June from his job in Bremerton monitoring people who are placed on community supervision after their release from prison. Aldrich did not respond to a request for comment, the P-I said, and his criminal defense attorney did not return repeated phone calls. |
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