No charges in fatal crash involving a state senator
MADISON - State prosecutors won’t be filing charges over an Ashland County crash that involved a former Democratic Senate leader and killed a woman and her 5-year-old daughter.
Ashland County District Attorney David Meany said Thursday there was not sufficient evidence to prove allegations beyond a reasonable doubt and he would not pursue charges against anyone involved in the July crash.
Meany also said investigators with the Ashland Police Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol have not referred charges to his office.
Twenty-seven-year-old Alyssa Ortman of Pennsylvania and her 5-yearold daughter Khaleesi Fink were killed in a car crash involving former Senate
Minority Leader Janet Bewley on July 22. Ortman was driving 100 mph at the time, according to Wisconsin State Patrol investigation records.
Police also found a vape pen that contained Delta-8-THC, a compound known as “weed lite” that was found in Ortman’s blood, according to Meany.
Bewley, a Democrat who represents a state Senate district that covers the northwestern part of the state and is not seeking reelection, pulled out of a Lake Superior beach entrance that day and into the path of a car driven by Ortman. When Ortman’s car collided with Bewley’s, it spun across Highway 2 and was hit by another vehicle driven by Jodi Munson of Washburn.
Ortman’s daughter was pronounced
Bewley dead at the crash scene. Ortman was taken to a nearby hospital where she later died, according to police.
Brandon Fink, the father of Khaleesi Fink, filed a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this month against Bewley, Munson, Ortman and three insurance companies.
In the lawsuit, Fink accuses Ortman, Bewley and Munson of committing negligence that resulted in his daughter’s death. He alleged all three failed to maintain a proper lookout. Fink also alleges Bewley was distracted while driving and that Ortman failed to maintain control of her vehicle.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter was on the phone with Bewley using a hands-free phone connection at the time of the crash for an interview he had arranged with her staff about last fall’s elections for the Legislature. Meany reported Thursday there was no evidence to believe Bewley had stopped using the hands-free feature at the time of the crash.
Bewley also had undergone cataract eye surgery a day before the crash. Meany reported Thursday there was no evidence showing Bewley’s vision was impaired at the time of the crash nor had a doctor recommended driving restrictions.
Meany said Thursday he considered whether prosecutors could pursue charges against Bewley but ultimately concluded he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bewley behaved in a criminally negligent or criminally reckless way ahead of the crash given the rate of speed Ortman was traveling, which was nearly 60 mph over the speed limit.