Drinking and Driving caught on Tape

Sorry for being such a downer on everyone but I thought I would give everyone this news bit before everyone got their weekend started.

Btw

This video would make a great Drinking and Driving commercial.

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Video captures partying before deadly accident

By JEFFREY M. BARKER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

AUBURN -- The camera began recording at 8:22 p.m. on July 16, 2001.

The man behind the camera -- 22-year-old Tom Stewart -- was partying at an Auburn apartment belonging to Teresa Hedlund's mother.
Hedlund was engaged to Stewart's twin brother, Tim.

Tom pans the camera toward a neighbor on another balcony. "You're on candid camera," he says.

Then the time stamp on the screen reads 9:26 p.m.

Inside the apartment, April Byrd, 17, holds a bottle of alcohol in each hand. A Miller Genuine Draft beer in the right. Captain Morgan Spiced Rum in the other.

Brandon Dupea, 21 -- Tom calls him "Slim Shady" -- walks across the screen.

In the background, 21-year-old Marcus Cooper carries Jayme Vomenici, 18, through the apartment.

Hedlund, 28 at the time, walks past the camera -- "there's Tim's girl," Tom Stewart says.

"Break it off to her, cuz," Tom yells to Dupea and Byrd, who are sitting close together. They kiss.

Several times, Hedlund is heard yelling for her 4-year-old daughter. The girl is then seen with a lit cigarette propped between her lips. They tell her to dance and to "shake her moneymaker," at which the girl thrusts her hips, then bends over wiggling her toddler bottom in the air.

Tom, no longer behind the camera, is seen together with Byrd. They're both wagging their tongues over the top of a bottle of alcohol.

It's 9:50 p.m. April declares she's drunk.

"We're . . . liquored up," Tom Stewart says into the lens.

Then it's 10:25 p.m. inside a small sports coupe.

Tim Stewart sits in the back seat, on the right side, with his head dangling out an opening -- a missing rear window. Dupea sits in the middle of the back seat. Cooper is on the other side, barely visible through Vomenici, who is on his lap, and Byrd, who is draped across the group, unconscious.

Tom Stewart is driving. Hedlund operates the camera, sitting on her knees, facing backward.

"You gotta record this . . .! I'm driving," Tom Stewart says.

The screen is blurry when Hedlund briefly points the camera toward the driver. He makes a face at the camera.

She switches the camera to night vision. Everyone's face is lit in an eerie shade of green.

"How much do you love me?" Hedlund asks Tim Stewart, pointing the camera at him.

Then Vomenici screams at Tom Stewart, her face hard and serious. She tells him to slow down or to stop the car.

"Jayme, you want me to drive?" Hedlund asks.

"No. Stop the car," the only sober person in the car replies.

The camera shows Byrd passed out. Then the road ahead. Dupea sings along to the rap song on the car stereo.

It's 10:28 p.m. The car is stopped at a traffic signal.

Vomenici protests, says something about Tom Stewart not being able to stay in the correct lane. Someone tells her to shut up.

Tom's just being silly, Hedlund says.

"You're gonna . . . drive the speed limit or you're gonna . . . stop the car," Vomenici says.

"Tom . . . stop! Tom!"

Then the picture cuts out.
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart...O_WAVAL101.jpg

The wreckage in July 2001 in Auburn of what is considered Washington's worst single-car accident since 1951. Six people were killed in the crash.

[Ryan]

Man, that's fucked up.

[Hey Bubu]

Bunch of irresponsible idiots.

[moshen]

what'd they crash into anyway?

dumbasses...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...edlund08.shtml

Woman who videotaped last ride is convicted of 3 of 4 charges

By JEFFREY M. BARKER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

AUBURN -- It doesn't take much to encourage drunken driving, a jury decided yesterday.

Teresa Hedlund did so simply by cramming into a car along with six of her friends, according to a six-member jury that also found Hedlund guilty of giving alcohol and tobacco to minors.

But Hedlund was not an accomplice to reckless driving, jurors said, rejecting the prosecution's novel argument that Hedlund "egged on" driver Tom Stewart by using a video camera to film the moments that led up to the horrific crash on July 16, 2001.

"Teresa has always looked at this trial as if she's being made responsible for the deaths of her friends and her fiance," Hedlund's attorney, Tom Campbell, said after the verdict was announced. "She'll never feel like she's responsible for that accident."

Hedlund, 30, is the only survivor of that single-car wreck near the SuperMall. She was charged with being an accomplice to the reckless and drunken driving that led up to that crash, and with giving alcohol to a 17-year-old and tobacco to her 4-year-old daughter at a party beforehand.

She walked quickly from the courtroom yesterday, crying.

"I'm not a bad mother," was all she said to a man escorting her past reporters.

She faces up to one year in jail on each of the three gross misdemeanors. Her sentencing has not been scheduled.

Campbell said he will immediately ask for a mistrial. Comments made by city prosecutor Kelly Montgomery during her closing argument Thursday were inappropriate and inflammatory, he said.

The entire trial was unusual -- from the location (the basement music room in a large Baptist church) to the delays (caused by the legal definition of the word "victim") and the viewing of a videotape that showed the last moments of six young lives.

Twins Tim and Tom Stewart, both 22, died in the crash, as did Marcus Cooper, 21, Brandon Dupea, 21, April Byrd, 17, and Jayme Vomenici, 18.

It was a Monday night. The seven partied at Hedlund's mother's apartment, where Hedlund and her fiance, Tim Stewart, lived. They shared beer and rum and listened to rap music.

Then they piled into Vomenici's four-seat Ford Escort ZX2 sports coupe.

A video camera caught much of the night on tape. The recording shows Byrd drinking alcohol and Hedlund propping a lighted cigarette between her daughter's lips, as a joke. It shows the only sober person in the car, Vomenici, screaming for the driver, Tom Stewart, to slow down. It cuts out seconds before the car slams into a concrete pillar on 15th Street Southwest.

The several-minute recording "was a vehicle to bring Teresa to court and make her responsible for the deaths of six people," Campbell said yesterday.

The recording was instrumental in Montgomery's arguments: that videotaping Tom Stewart caused him to drive more wildly than he would have otherwise, and that by getting into the car, Hedlund forced Vomenici out of the driver's seat.

"Jayme had to sit somewhere other than the driver's seat," Montgomery told the jury Thursday, saying Vomenici was forced into the back because she was smaller.

"By getting into that car, the defendant forced the issue," Montgomery said.

"Sometimes presence, in and of itself, is enough to convict a person of a crime."

On Thursday, Campbell called the argument "preposterous."

However, he said he spoke with five of six jurors yesterday, and they'd agreed with Montgomery's argument.

The jurors chose not to speak with reporters.

"That's simply not the law in this state," Campbell said.

"Simply allowing someone to drive drunk is not a violation of the law."

Campbell suggested that he'd take the ruling to the Court of Appeals.

An earlier decision in the case is already pending there.

Last week, Auburn Municipal Court Judge Patrick Burns dismissed the charges of being an accomplice to reckless and drunken driving, ruling that Hedlund was a victim of those crimes and therefore couldn't legally be considered an accomplice to them.

However, a King County Superior Court judge on Wednesday reinstated the charges, saying Hedlund was a victim -- but of vehicular assault, not of drunken and reckless driving.

Campbell tried yesterday to call for a mistrial, citing comments made by Montgomery during her closing argument.

Montgomery said Hedlund "sexually exploited" her daughter and suggested that Hedlund encouraged that Byrd, who was passed out, be raped.

"The comments were made for no other reason than to inflame the passions of the jury," Campbell said.

Burns told Campbell that yesterday was not the appropriate time to ask for a mistrial.

Montgomery said she hadn't yet decided how long a sentence to recommend.

"I'm very pleased, because it's what's right," she said of the verdict. "But I'm more pleased for the Vomenici family.

"I think we did the right thing."

[per1sh]

less piss in the gene pool.

[Mr. Sam]

The only thing that pisses me off is that the sober one was stupid enough to get in the car with a drunk behind the wheel. Thats just plain ignorance.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...edlund09.shtml

[Joseph V]

*another one bites the dust*


oh well.


there will be thousands of more babies brought into this world anyways.

[thefncrow]

Originally posted by Blame
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...edlund09.shtml

My guess on this one, before sentencing, the judge saw that this was something that could be overruled. It was not something he wanted to happen, so, give them the minimum sentence and hope that they feel that its so light that its not worth appealing.

A day in jail, an apology, an alcohol class, a parenting class, and talking to 2 assemblies would be much easier and much cheaper than the appeals process.

I posted the update to this after just having watched Forensic Files on A&E. The story tonight was of a young woman who was driving drunk and crashed her car killing 4 other individuals.

After an extensive investigation ( she doesnt remember ever behing behind the wheel) she was convicted of 8 charges and sentenced to 4 years.

I remembered posting this and lo and behold Hedlund was sentenced yesterday.

Althou the accident on A&E was directly the fault of the driver this is still way too lenient of a sentence for someone with this much disregard for the law - buying alcohol for minors, encouraging excessive drinking, negligence, child endangerment, even going so far as providing her own kid with a drag from her cigarrettes.
This girl is obviously some dumb white trash mom who did know better but didnt give a fuck until it cost the lives of her friends.

Either way....what a waste.
Shes doomed to live a shitty life anyways.

btw she apealed the sentence, unless I read it wrong.


peace

[Nightlife Privilege Revoker]

i know its out of line, but is there a link to the actual video?




_travis_

[Cock Puncher]

so is the actually video out...I'd like to see it, if you know where it is

[Infrared]

Originally posted by damn-it-2-hell
so is the actually video out...I'd like to see it, if you know where it is

I think blockbuster might have it, check for it in the new releases.

[JSAIJW]

Actual Video???? WTF??? I have a few questions for you guys. 1) Are any of you from that area? Did you know any of them? Do any of you REALLY no what happened? The press was never shown the video. They were only going off what the police said. 2) Do you guys believe everything that you read? Yes, I know that it was stupid on all of their parts, but don't make fun. Even IF you knew any one of them; I can't believe that you think it's ok and cool to laugh and make fun of the dead. Newspaper articles don't tell the real story. They are in such a rush to make their stories into the next days paper that they scribble their notes, or get something ass backwards. I know that it has been a few years since all of this, but I just stumbled upon this site. I knew Jayme and April. I was just getting to know Brandon through my friend Brian. It's sad, but like someone else said we learn from others mistakes. Don't laugh. That's F***ed up!