Judge finds woman not guilty in St. Patrick's Day crash that killed Mason family
A woman accused of murder in a St. Patrick's Day 2019 crash that killed three members of a Mason family was found not guilty on Friday.
Abby Michaels, 25, was acquitted of all charges following a bench trial before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven Dankof.
Michaels was behind the wheel of a 2015 Kia Forte that hit and killed the Thompson family, who were traveling in their Toyota Camry on Interstate 75 near Dayton on the evening of March 17, 2019.
Timmy Thompson, 51, Karen Thompson, 50, and Tessa Thompson, 10, all died in the crash, which occurred in the southbound lanes between Dryden Road and South Dixie Avenue.
Timmy Thompson was vice president of sales and marketing at Tape Products Company in Cincinnati. His wife, Karen, was a special education teacher with Cincinnati Public Schools. Tessa attended St. Susanna Parish School in Mason.
Michaels was indicted in July 2019 on 13 counts including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, according to Montgomery County court records.
Prosecutors originally said Michaels left a bar in Miamisburg intoxicated prior to the crash, adding that she intentionally drove the wrong way on I-75 that night and caused the head-on collision.
Michaels had previously pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
After Dankof granted a motion by Michaels' lawyers to suppress evidence of her blood alcohol content, prosecutors motioned to dismiss the OVI charge and several vehicular homicide counts, court records show.
In a June 2021 ruling, Dankof said police warrantlessly and unconstitutionally searched Michaels' car immediately after the crash; that a Moraine officer made false statements in an affidavit for a warrant to draw Michaels' blood; that the blood draw was conducted out of compliance with state administrative code; and that police failed to refrigerate the blood samples after they were collected from the hospital.
The samples were refrigerated for the first time nearly 35 hours after the blood draw, the judge wrote, when they arrived at the Ohio State Highway Patrol crime lab in London, Ohio.
When police and emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene, court records state, Michaels was lying on the ground outside of her vehicle. She was unconscious and not breathing.
A paramedic had to perform a tracheotomy on Michaels, as her jaw was locked shut and couldn't be pried apart, before a helicopter arrived to fly her to the hospital, according to court documents.
The paramedic, Derek Montgomery, later said the only explanations for Michaels' jaw being locked were trauma or a seizure, court records state, adding a psychiatrist testified Michaels has a documented history of seizures and psychogenic seizures dating back to 2010.
"It is clear that alcohol played no role in the accident," the judge wrote.
Rather, Dankof wrote, at the time of the crash Michaels was suffering from a number of untreated mental health disorders "such that Ms. Michaels likely was not 'knowingly' or 'recklessly' operating her car."
The Enquirer has reached out to Jay Adams, the Xenia, Ohio, attorney representing Michaels. This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
Enquirer media partner Fox19 provided the photo for this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Judge finds woman not guilty in crash that killed Mason family
