Victim Impact Panels to begin in May
5th District brings in new program
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 11:26 p.m., March 27, 2008
Updated 11:00 a.m., March 28, 2008
A panel of three victims of drunken drivers talked to officials from the Fifth Judicial District Thursday evening about death and the life changes they have experienced as a result of someone else's decision to drive under the influence of alcohol.
The panel was assembled by the DUI Victim Center of Kansas to demonstrate a new program for DUI offenders that will begin here in May.
The Victim Center, with headquarters in Wichita, opened in 1990 and is expanding its program statewide with help from a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Vicky Lyon, victim witness coordinator, organized the presentation Thursday to introduce the DUI Victim Panel process to treatment professionals, court service officers, law enforcement, judges, community leaders and others from the criminal justice system. The effort was sponsored through the office of County Attorney Marc Goodman.
Members of the panel came from the Emporia area: Scott Edwards, who suffered long-lasting injuries and whose friend died in an accident at Sixth Avenue and Arundel Street; Jo Ellen Dambro, who spoke about her son's disabling injuries in an accident as a passenger of a drunken driver; and Deneise Peak, whose husband Delbert was killed when a drunken driver rammed the Peaks' dune buggy as they were stopped on a hill adjacent to an abandoned railroad line in north Lyon County.
The trio, and another local victim who was not able to attend Thursday, will alternate as panel members for the program here.
Lyon said that one of the sponsors' goals will be to obtain judges' agreement to sentence offenders to attend panel sessions as a condition of their probation. The sentencings would apply to people convicted of DUI, minor in possession or consumption, and transporting an open container of alcohol.
Drinking and driving has become a serious problem in this area, Lyon said. From Jan. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, the county handled about 1,500 DUI, MIP and TOC cases.
"That's a lot," Lyon said. "If we can save one life, if we can prevent one crash from happening, that's what we want to do."
After the presentation, Victim Center President and CEO Mary Ann Khoury, talked to the audience and explained details of how the Center will handle the presentations.
Khoury surprised Lyon by announcing the Emporian had been chosen for an outstanding achievement award that will be presented on May 15 during a breakfast at Botanica in Wichita.
"We would like to honor Vicky because she has been the most aggressive, the most outstanding, the most dedicated person in any community I have worked with since beginning this program," Khoury said.
Lyon will receive the Kevin Easter Award, which will be presented by Easter's father, Rick Easter. Kevin Easter, then 24, was a patrol officer for the Sedgwick County Sheriff's office until he was shot by a 14-year-old during a car stop on Jan. 8, 1996, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page Web site. He died during surgery.
His father, a former officer with the Wichita Police Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office, presents the award annually in memory of his son.
During the formal panel presentation, Scott Edwards talked about an accident that killed a friend and left him with bone and head injuries.
Edwards and his friends were turning into a restaurant at Sixth Avenue and Arundel when a drunk driver struck their vehicle in the rear passenger area on June 24, 1994. The drunken driver’s speed was estimated between 60 and 70 miles per hour.
“Neither one of us was breathing,” Edwards said, describing what emergency medical technicians found on arrival. “They tilted my head back and I started breathing again; they tiled his head back and nothing happened.”
Edwards’s friend, Clay Meyers, died in the accident and Edwards was unconscious for eight hours. He was life-flighted to St. Francis Medical Center in Wichita, where he spent 18 days before being admitted to a rehabilitation hospital for physical and speech therapy. He also suffered from double vision for six months.
In addition to the physical problems, Edwards found that his memory had been affected seriously. After sitting out college for a year to recuperate, he could not retain information when he returned to part-time classes.
“I had to be told stuff over and over again because I couldn’t remember everything,” he said.
His memory eventually improved and he graduated in 1997, the same year that the drunken driver finally went to trial. One juror voted against conviction on second-degree murder and, under new sentencing guidelines for manslaughter, he received 13 years in prison. That was overturned because the accident happened prior to the new guidelines, and the man was re-sentenced to six years.
“The right side of my body is not like it used to be,” Edwards said. “I can’t run any more. ... My right leg won’t work.”
Jo Ellen Dambro’s story involved her son, Ryan, who was 21 when she received “the phone call that is every parent’s nightmare.”
Ten years ago, Ryan had been drinking legally, she said, and had gotten into a Toyota Supra driven by his manager, who was under the influence of alcohol.
The resulting high-speed crash in a Lawrence residential neighborhood had almost severed the Toyota and left Ryan trapped inside for an hour. He was life-flighted to Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City after being freed.
The drive to Kansas City to see her son was the longest ride of her life, she said.
Among Ryan’s injuries were a paralyzed arm, spinal injury, broken ribs and feet, head lacerations, and a collapsed lung.
“To witness one’s child in pain, no matter how old, is extremely hard for any parent to bear,” she said.
A reconstructive surgeon in New Orleans was able to prevent amputation of the arm, but two nerves had been pulled from the spinal cord and could not be fully re-rooted during the nine-hour surgery.
“This surgery was an attempt to restore some movement in the upper arm and, hopefully, some flex in the elbow,” Dambro said.
Ryan now cannot use his left arm — his dominant arm — and was forced to try to change career plans. Before the accident, he had been hired to work as a grip for two major film productions, his mother said. The accident ended his ability to do the heavy workload of a grip.
“We were extremely grateful that Ryan still has the use of his three remaining extremities as well as the use of his fine mind.
The driver of the vehicle, whose Supra was not insured, finally was charged criminally on June 4, 1999, more than a year after the accident. The late filing of the case eliminated any possibility that Ryan Dambro could receive reimbursement from the victims’ compensation fund.
Dambro’s insurance paid for some of Ryan’s expenses, then dropped the family, which was left with $370,944 in actual expense, plus future losses of wages and other expenses. His family has tried to help financially, and has spent more than $50,000 to help support him as he worked toward a new career.
Ryan was awarded damages of $2 million in a civil suit.
“To date, the offender in this case has failed to pay one cent of restitution to Ryan,” Dambro said.
He cannot obtain health insurance and has had no additional medical procedures or check-ups; he receives no financial assistance from any program and is not eligible for disability through Social Security.
He is beginning to suffer curvature of the spine as the arm continues to affect his body.
“This was also a consequence because my son climbed into a car with a drive driving under the influence,” Dambro said. “... He made poor choices for himself that affected others.”
Deneise Peak described a glorious last day spent with her husband, Delbert, in June 2005. They had gone to an auction, then headed out in a dune buggy to enjoy a warm, windless day in the Flint Hills.
They called their son Chad and made plans to go for a night ride on dune buggies, and arrived in north Lyon County a little after 10 p.m.
“We stopped a couple of places to chat,” Peak said of the night ride around an abandoned railroad track. “That was the end of a perfect day. The next thing I remember, I woke up in a hospital bed.”
A drunken driver of a pickup truck had driven over a hill and into the dune buggy in which the Peaks were seated as they waited for their friends to catch up to them.
The driver had been drinking since 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon and had thought — incorrectly — that the dune buggy riders were on his property when he went to his pickup to look for them. Peak said the driver’s speed was estimated between 58 to 62 miles per hour at the time the truck struck the dune buggy.
Peak did not remember the mile-and-a-half ride in an ambulance from the scene to the nearest field the medical helicopter could find to land.
When she awoke in the hospital, she could not move in any direction; she had 10 fractures to her back and lacerations to her head and leg. At 3:30 in the afternoon, medical personnel pushed her hospital bed to Delbert’s room in intensive care.
“I was only able to reach over and touch his hand. I could not see him,” she said. “... I was robbed of a proper good-bye. I will never get over that.”
The family was told that Delbert Peak had no brain activity and that they would need to make a decision.
“We were here to protect each other. That was my job as his friend and wife and I was failing,” Deneise Peak said. “On June 26 at 7:12 p.m., the choice was made for me. My husband was pronounced dead.”
Delbert’s funeral was delayed while she healed enough to be put into a wheelchair, under care of her mother, a nurse.
“I was about to put my best friend in the ground ... because of someone’s choice. I was confined to a wheelchair, unable to drive, dependent on my daughter and parents. Our lives as we knew them had been taken away from us by someone who decided to drink and drive.”
Peak has “visited and revisited the site many times in an effort to remember” and visits her husband at the cemetery.
She talked about all that the couple’s four children and grandchildren will miss not having Delbert Peak in their lives, as well as changes in her own life.
She, like other injured victims of drunken drivers, can no longer get health insurance. She was forced to sell their home in Kansas City. Without Delbert’s income and being unable to work herself, she no longer could afford to keep the house in Kansas City, where they worked, and the house in Chase County, where they came on weekends.
She also cannot receive the medical treatment she needs. Her doctor wants her to have an MRI, but the provider wants it pre-paid before it can be done.
Like others, Peak’s auto insurance was canceled after it paid for its share of medical costs because the drunken driver had minimal insurance.
She suffers from headaches daily and the left side of her body goes numb.
“This is something I have to live with the rest of my life because it is considered a pre-existing condition,” she said.
The drunken driver whose actions caused her husband’s death and Peak’s health and financial problems was convicted of manslaughter.
At his sentencing, Peak heard only parts of the testimony.
“What I did hear him say was he knew his choice that night affected a lot of people,” she said. “I heard him do more apologizing to his family than ours. ...
“The defendant was sentenced to 41 months in prison and 36 months’ probation. And I’m punished for a lifetime.”
spectator (anonymous) says...
It's about time she received recognition for all of her efforts. The public-at-large doesn't realize all of the details that her job encompasses but those of us who know and work with her applaud this award to a most derserving individual.
March 28, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
I have been privileged to know Vicky Lyon's work for years, and I can tell you that she is excellent at what she does. We are well served by her work. Thank you, Vicky.
March 28, 2008 at 11:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )