The Aurora woman who struck and killed a man walking along Chagrin Road in Bainbridge Township last year will serve 30 months in prison as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.
Brooke M. Jarvis, 30, who works for her family’s equine and farm insurance agency, pleaded guilty April 5 in Geauga County Common Pleas Court to reckless homicide, a third-degree felony, in connection with the March 26, 2021, accident that killed 32-year-old Chadwick McIntosh.
A Geauga County grand jury originally had indicted Jarvis for aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony.
“There were a number of challenges in this case, both evidentiary and factual,” Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz told the Geauga County Maple Leaf. “After speaking with the victims, we felt that it was important for the defendant to take responsibility for the death and serve prison time. By pleading guilty to reckless homicide, Brooke Jarvis took responsibility for Chadwick McIntosh’s death and will serve time in prison.”
According to court records, Jarvis had a blood-alcohol content of 0.212 at or near the time of the crash. The legal blood-alcohol content limit in the state of Ohio is 0.08.
She has no prior criminal history, according to court records.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss after her May 3 sentencing two first-degree misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or both, and one count of aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth-degree felony.
Judge David M. Ondrey will grant Jarvis early judicial release after 18 months under the plea agreement. She then will be placed on 12 months of community control, including six months of electronic-monitored house arrest with work and personal necessity privileges.
Jarvis will be able to have the case records sealed three years after the expiration of her community control. She will be allowed to seek reinstatement of her Ohio driver’s license.
The plea agreement also avoided a hearing scheduled for April 5 on a motion defense attorneys Larry Zukerman and Ian Friedman filed to exclude from evidence the breath alcohol test — and results — Bainbridge police administered to Jarvis at the police station.
The defense alleged the police officers who administered the breath test were not properly permitted or proficient to administer the test. They also argued Bainbridge police had not been properly testing the instrument used at the time of Jarvis’ arrest. They noted the breath testing instrument had been utilized 30 times over a 14-month period to conduct “proficiency examinations,” i.e., to test operators’ and senior operators’ own breath, and in each examination, detectable levels of alcohol were found when test results all should have been .000.
Less than eight weeks after Jarvis’ test and subsequent arrest, Bainbridge police took the instrument used out of service and sent it out for repairs, which included “reading high” and “reset voltage,” the defense team alleged.
They also claimed the Ohio Department of Health was not following the state guidelines that certify officers to operate the machine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are pleased that this matter has concluded fairly. It has been incredibly difficult for all involved parties,” Zuckerman and Friedman told the Maple Leaf. “In the end, the plea accurately recognizes the events of the fateful evening.”
Prosecutors said Jarvis and a friend went to a Chagrin Falls restaurant for dinner the evening of March 26, 2021. Credit card records showed she charged two alcoholic beverages to her account at approximately 6:55 p.m.
Jarvis and her friend then went to The Greenville Inn on Chagrin Road in Bainbridge, arriving around 8:38 p.m. Video footage showed Jarvis was seated at the bar most of the night with several friends and was seen ordering and drinking alcoholic beverages and doing tequila shots with her friends.
Around 10:23 p.m., Jarvis and her friend left the Greenville in her Jeep, traveling eastbound on Chagrin Road. At the same time, McIntosh, a U.S. Air Force sergeant, and his girlfriend were on foot also walking eastbound on Chagrin Road. Jarvis struck McIntosh with the front passenger side of her Jeep.
McIntosh’s estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, naming Jarvis, her parents’ insurance agency, the Greenville Inn, as well as several unnamed bartenders who serves Jarvis that night.
Source : Geauga Maple Leaf
