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Mother of killed worker wants more drug recognition officers

As Milford Police Officer Russ Kenney talked about the need for additional Drug Recognition Experts in Butler County, Shannon Dethlefs sat in the Middletown City Council Chambers holding tight to her grandson, Dylan, 9.

Dethlefs knows from experience the importance of drug recognition officers — a police officer trained to recognize impairment in drivers under the influence of drugs — and how they may speed up the judicial process. Her daughter, Amber Rooks, a 24-year-old mother, was killed while working along Cox Road by a driver under the influence of Xanax and marijuana.

Michele Schuster, 24, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the April 2015 crash that killed Rooks. Schuster was found guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide and three counts of aggravated vehicular assault and OVI for injuring three others.

“Sixteen years is not a long time,” Dethlefs said.

She added that impaired driving is “rampant.”

On Wednesday, several Butler County law enforcement officers attended the 2016 “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign aimed at stopping drunk drivers and saving lives, said Katie Pendergraft, coordinator of the Butler County Safe Communities.

The campaign runs through Labor Day Weekend and during that time, local law enforcement will show zero tolerance for drunk driving. Increased state and national messaging about the dangers of driving drunk, coupled with sobriety checkpoints, and increased officers on the road, aim to drastically reduce the number of accidents blamed on drunk drivers, she said.

Last year, eight of the 29 fatalities in Butler County were blamed on alcohol, Pendergraft said. Of the 1,828 injuries on the roads, 239, or 13 percent, were alcohol related, she said.

Labor Day Weekend is one of the deadliest, statistics show. During the 2014 Labor Day Weekend, 40 percent of the fatalities in traffic crashes involved drunk drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. About 28 percent of those crashes were blamed on drivers who were almost twice the legal limit.

“This is important to remember — do not trust yourself when you drink,” Pendergraft said. “You may think you aren’t drunk, but law enforcement will know you are. Law enforcement officers’ skills in detecting and identifying drunk drivers have never been better. They will spot you and arrest you.”

Dethlefs hopes one day, soon, the same will be true for impaired drivers, those under the influence of illegal drugs.

She believes whenever there is an accident, and police think a driver may be impaired, their blood should be collected and tested for illegal drugs. She said her daughter’s blood was drawn, only because she was unconscious.

She said there’s “a level of unfairness” to that and blood samples could “take out questions” if there’s a trial.

Her daughter, an organ donor, saved the lives of seven people, Dethlefs said. She called that “one of the most positive things” to come out of the tragedy.

It’s also important, she said, to show her grandson, a fourth-grader, that “one voice can make a difference. One voice leads to more. Someone needs to take a stand.”

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