Wife's Lawsuit Revives Hit-and-Run Case
Woman charged in I-30 bridge accident that killed man in 2001
April 7, 2003
By Holly Becka
Staff Writer
When Wyman Miller died in a hit-and-run
accident that sent his car plummeting off an Interstate
30 bridge, his wife promised herself that she'd help
police file criminal charges against the driver.
More than two years later, Linda
Miller has done just that – by filing a civil
lawsuit that provided the missing piece of evidence
after the police investigation stalled. Witnesses
had recorded the license plate of the Buick
that left the scene, but no one could identify
the driver.
That is, until an Arlington woman
admitted in a civil deposition to driving the
Buick that struck Mr. Miller. That led to her
criminal indictment a few weeks ago.
"Persistence is my middle name,"
said Ms. Miller, an account executive for an independent
insurance brokerage in Dallas.
"Wyman deserves justice."
The driver accused in the case is
Carole Roediger, 63, a grandmother and retired
executive secretary.
Kevin Clancy, Ms. Roediger's attorney,
said his client acknowledged in the deposition that
she was driving but admitted no wrongdoing.
Ms. Roediger faces charges of aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon and failure to stop and
render aid. A trial date has not yet been set. The lawsuit
against her is also pending.
"Anybody would be [shocked] when
they had no intent to commit any violations of the law
and you're charged with an intentional aggravated assault,"
Mr. Clancy said, adding that an indictment is no evidence
of guilt. "She feels like she's not guilty, and
she wants to have a trial."
A trial date has not yet been set.
The lawsuit against her is also pending.
The district attorney's office said
it has seen few instances of depositions from
civil cases leading to criminal charges in street
or vehicular crimes, although it happens occasionally
in white-collar crimes. More often, evidence from
a criminal case leads to a civil lawsuit, said
Jane Whitaker, chief of the intake division.
Prosecutors also note that the caseload
of new traffic crimes in Dallas is so big that it's
unusual for police to reopen a case that's two years
old. Ms. Miller believes it would have remained stalled
if not for her efforts.
Charge upgraded
Police had filed a lesser charge of criminally
negligent homicide, but the grand jury upgraded it to
an aggravated assault, a second-degree felony with a
20-year maximum sentence.
Ms. Miller said she believes the charges
were upgraded because at least two witnesses said that
it appeared the driver deliberately turned the wheel
into Mr. Miller's vehicle.
Police said the Jan. 12, 2001, accident
occurred after Mr. Miller's Jeep
Cherokee and Ms. Roediger's Buick nearly collided
when both attempted to move into the center lane
from opposite sides of I-30.
"The suspect accelerated, passed
up the complainant and changed to the center lane when
unsafe," a police report reads. "The suspect's
vehicle collided left back quarter panel to the right
front of the complainant's vehicle."
According to witnesses' sworn statements,
one onlooker said that the driver appeared to deliberately
hit Mr. Miller's vehicle; another said the driver twice
cut into Mr. Miller's lane, the last time jerking the
wheel.
The impact caused Mr. Miller's vehicle
to strike a guardrail and vault over a bridge.
"The suspect briefly pulled over
onto the north shoulder before leaving the scene without
providing any information," the police report said.
Mr. Clancy said Ms. Roediger never saw
what happened because Mr. Miller was out of her line
of sight. Ms. Miller said there's no way Ms. Roediger
could have avoided seeing the pandemonium.
Passers-by stopped and tried to help Mr.
Miller while others jotted down the Buick's license
plate number. But no one could give police a description
of the driver.
According to the police report, an attorney
called investigators six days later to say that his
client might have been involved in the accident. Police
were allowed to examine and photograph the car, but
the attorney said his client – who investigators
say was unidentified – was not ready to make a
statement.
"Since there were no witnesses which
could ID the operator of the suspect vehicle, this case
has remained suspended," the police report stated.
Mr. Clancy said Ms. Roediger has cooperated
from the beginning.
"We gave them the car; it wasn't
like we were trying to hide anything," he said.
"We just weren't going to let her make a statement."
Going the civil route
That's when Ms. Miller's dogged determination
took her from the criminal justice system to the civil
court arena. She felt frustrated that Dallas police
weren't doing everything she thought they should. So
she hired civil attorney Bernie Hauder of Dallas and
filed suit.
"I was upset," she recalls.
"The [criminal] system exists to bring people to
justice, but I didn't feel like I had a choice. ...
"The police deal with so many cases
[that] I think they're cynical," she recalls. "I
think they wrote it off."
Lead Detective Frank Villa, a 21-year
veteran with the Dallas
Police Department, said he also recalls feeling
disappointed that he couldn't do more. Once suspects
have an attorney, it's a violation of their civil
rights for police to interrogate them alone –
so Detective Villa said he couldn't prove who
the driver was.
"It's frustrating for us that we
can't file a criminal charge against the suspect, and
it's frustrating to us that we have to tell the family
of the deceased that we can't solve the crime,"
he said.
Ms. Roediger had filed an insurance claim
for the accident, but that wasn't enough to meet the
threshold for a criminal case, Detective Villa said.
He suggested that Ms. Miller file the lawsuit because
under civil statutes, a vehicle's registered owner is
liable for damages caused during an accident.
Ms. Miller also turned to Reed Prospere,
a prominent Dallas criminal defense attorney, to help
her navigate the criminal justice system and advise
her on how to get evidence from the civil arena.
Sometimes, Mr. Prospere said, tools that
police have and the laws they must work under aren't
sufficient to help solve cases.
"Whereas on the civil side, where
you don't have certain procedures and protections that
law enforcement has to work under, you can go out and
do things like take depositions," he said. "There
are other sorts of evidentiary avenues that may be available."
Mr. Clancy, who had invoked his client's
Fifth Amendment rights to shield her from police questioning,
said he's never had a case like this.
"It used to be that you could take
the Fifth in a civil case; now they can use that
against you," he said. "We thought if
somebody thoroughly investigated this... that
they probably wouldn't bring criminal charges."
After the deposition, Ms. Miller gave
a copy to Mr. Prospere, who took it to the district
attorney's office, which in turn gave it to police.
The case went to the grand jury
in February, more than two years after Mr. Miller's
death at age 44. The former U.S.
Marine Corps gunnery sergeant was killed as
he drove to work in Grand Prairie. He and his
wife had been married since 1983.
Grateful to witnesses
Ms. Miller said she agreed to speak publicly
to thank the witnesses who aided her husband and who
got the Buick's license plate number. She also said
she's a realist and doesn't expect Ms. Roediger to get
prison time if convicted. But, she doesn't want Ms.
Roediger to go "scot-free" either.
"She's never had to read the autopsy
report or see pictures of the aftermath," Ms. Miller
said. "Maybe [her] community service needs to be
something that makes her realize these kinds of things
change people's lives," Ms. Miller said.
Mr. Clancy said Ms. Roediger is innocent
and doesn't deserve to be charged with a crime.
Mr. Prospere said he cannot forecast the
final outcome, but he believes the criminal and civil
arenas can work hand in hand.
"When you live in a society with
constitutional protections that all citizens enjoy,
sometimes those protections on the part of one citizen
are going to get in the way of another citizen's search
for the truth," he said. "I think it shows
that we're a civilized society with constitutional protections,
but that the system works," he said.
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