Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
DUI victim’s family still hopes to reform law
Nearly two years after the death of their daughter at the hands of a drunk driver, the parents of Deana Eckman are still trying to get more stringent DUI laws passed in the state with the hopes of averting another such tragedy.
“I don’t want to see another family go through this,” said Eckman’s mother, Roseann DeRosa. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. You wake up every morning and it hits you right in the face.”
Eckman, 45, was killed by David Strowhouer in a drunk-driving crash as she and her husband, Chris, were returning home from a family gathering Feb. 16, 2019.
The crash occurred about 9:30 p.m., when Strowhouer crossed a double yellow line and slammed head-on into the 2019 Subaru WRX Chris and Deana Eckman
were driving. Strowhouer’s blood-alcohol level was 0.199 and he had traces of cocaine, diazepam and marijuana in his system at the time.
Strowhouer, 32, of the 2400 block of Woodside Lane in Newtown Square, later pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and related offenses, for which he received a sentence of 25 and a half to 50 years in state prison.
Strowhouer had five prior DUIs on his record since 2010 and was on probation for a previous offense at the time of the crash. He had pleaded guilty to his third and fourth DUIs at the same time in Chester County Oct. 2, 2017, and was given a total sentence of 18 to 36 months in state prison. Later that same month, he pleaded to a fifth DUI before Judge Mary Alice Brennan in Delaware County for DUI: controlled substance – combination alcohol/drug as a third offense. The sentence in the Delaware County case was run concurrent to the Chester County sentence.
Roseanne DeRosa previously said the criminal justice system failed her family “miserably” and that Strowhouer’s last DUI conviction should never have been run concurrently.
“He just floated through the courts all those years,” she said Monday. “He never got penalized the way he should have in the beginning.”
The DeRosa’s pleas were heard by former state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, who set out to craft “Deanna’s Law,” a package of reforms that would increase penalties for multiple DUI offenders and impose the use of continuous alcohol monitoring bracelets statewide for the first time.
Killion, who lost a bid for re-election in November, deemed the proposals a “nobrainer” and was confident they would pass through both chambers with bipartisan support.
His bill did pass through the state Senate 43-6, but Deana’s Law hit several snags in the House, chief among them an amendment that carved out marijuana “used lawfully” under the state’s Medical Marijuana Act from the definitions for a “controlled substance.”
“As soon as they put that amendment in there, that’s when all the support got pulled from the bill and when it essentially got killed,” said Rich DeRosa. “If they had left that alone and not put in that amendment, it would have been passed and it would be a law by now.”
The medical marijuana amendment killed AAA support, which in turn soured state representatives on its passage. The language was later removed and the legislator who added it, state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-118, of Avoca, said on the House floor during debate that it should go forward without the amendment.
Some last-minute opposition from lobbyists for the American Civil Liberties Union and Firearm Owners Against Crime put the kibosh on the bill, however, and the House ended up voting it down 151-51.
State Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168 of Middletown, vowed to take up the reforms again this session and so far has been doing just that, working with state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151 of North Wales, to bring a new version to the floor. State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24 of Marlborough Township, is also expected to introduce a bill similar to Killion’s original package in the state Senate soon.
Stephens tried to get the bill passed at the end of last session by allowing his own House version to be essentially overwritten with Killion’s Senate version so that it could come back to the Senate for a simple concurrence vote after passage, but that did not happen.
“I’m working with colleagues in both the House and Senate to introduce and pass legislation in Deana Eckman’s memory,” Quinn said in a statement Monday. “Her death was a horrible tragedy and entirely preventable. The individual convicted of her murder had a suspended driver’s license and would have been imprisoned had consecutive sentences been imposed for this fourth and fifth DUIS. The law regarding this must be changed to better protect Pennsylvanians from the menace of repeat DUI offenders.”
Rich DeRosa said the plan at this point appears to be trying to incorporate Deana’s Law into another popular proposal involving license suspensions.
“Since that part of it has a lot of support, they thought that if we merged them together it may be more likely to push the bill through,” he said. “That’s the way the bill stands right now, it has both of those subjects in it.”
“We’re all trying to work on it together to try to do something to get it passed,” said Roseann DeRosa. “We’re just trying to get the legal wording done the way it should be before we have another amendment catastrophe.”
As previously proposed, Deana’s Law would have required anyone convicted on a third DUI to serve a sentence consecutive to any other sentence imposed by the court and increased jail time for repeat offenders. Current sentencing guidelines for fourth and fifth offenses are three-and-a-half to seven years, but the bill would have raised those to five to 10 years and 10 to 20 years, respectively.
The previous bill also would have imposed preventative measures by mandating statewide use of “continuous alcohol monitoring” devices, also known as CAM (or “SCRAM” for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor). These devices are affixed to offenders in the same manner as house arrest devices, but sample and test the wearer’s perspiration for the presence of alcohol to alert authorities before an offender gets behind the wheel.
The extent to which the new version of the House bill will mirror that original language is not yet known. It has not yet been given a printer’s number, but Rich DeRosa said the biggest change so far appears to be pushing back the felony designation from three prior convictions to four.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer is among those who are working with the family and legislators to get the bill passed this time around.
“We’re very early in the legislative process, and when a new session gets started it takes a couple of weeks or months before bills really start moving,” said Stollsteimer. “But we’ve already seen great interest from members of the Legislature to co-sponsor or to sponsor this legislation, which shows you a lot about how people came to understand that this is a law that needs to be passed.”
Stollsteimer commended Eckman’s family for trying to take the tragedy of her death and turn it into something that could benefit the lives of other people. He described the bill’s two major prongs – increased penalties on one hand and prevention through CAM on the other – as a comprehensive approach that clearly garnered a lot of support before being derailed last year.
“What I’m really trying to do is coordinate through the DA’s Association,” said Stollsteimer. “Sixty-six of the 67 D.A.’s (in the state) are members of this association and we have a lobbyist in Harrisburg who works on bills that we think are of interest to public safety, and this is certainly one of the priority bills.”
Near the one-year anniversary of her daughter’s death, Roseann DeRosa described life without her daughter as a “living nightmare.” She said things have not improved since.
“When you lose a child, it never goes away,” she said. “The pain of losing a child never, ever leaves you, ever. You stop that very night. That’s where you remain. You define life as ‘before’ and ‘after’ and it’s very, very difficult. I would hate to see this happen to another family. That’s our goal. If we can prevent one or two families from going through this agony, it would be worth it, in her name.”
Rich DeRosa said he has likewise seen some flavor drain out of life. The hobbies he has enjoyed his whole life are not as fulfilling anymore and he worries about his grandchildren driving or how his other children are doing.
“It’s constantly on your mind,” he said. “Every time you hear a siren, you cringe. Even now when I’m driving down a street … I tense up when a car goes by me in the other direction.”
“Especially when you see a great big pickup coming toward you, it’s automatic,” agreed his wife. “Your mind goes right back to that night and how it all went down.”
But she said the family is tight-knit and supports one another strongly, and that helps. They plan to get together Sunday to commemorate Deana’s life and, hopefully, the legacy she will soon leave with a package of tougher DUI laws on the books.
“I hope it passes this time,” said Roseann DeRosa. “I hope they can pull it together. It’s a good team, I just hope we can get it done. It’s a bill that’s going to save a life.”