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Punishing Google for unfairly favoring its own shopping recommendations, European regulators fined the company the equivalent of $2.72 billion. Europe’s latest attempt to curb the company’s clout represents a record fine. /
When she arrived in the hospital emergency room, burned so horribly that parts of her body had melted away, Judy Malinowski’s future was measured in minutes.
She somehow stretched it nearly two more years, packing the time with emotional, medical, legal and even legislative victories.
Malinowski, 33, died Tuesday. The mother of two and former Miss New Albany never recovered enough to go home to her family, but she held on long enough to see her ex-boyfriend imprisoned and to inspire new sentencing legislation — sponsors call it Judy’s Law — that has passed the House and is expected to go before the Ohio Senate on Wednesday for a vote.
“She fought so hard,” her stepfather, Dan Bowes, said Tuesday. “No one expected that she’d make it 48 hours. And this is Day 696.”
Malinowski’s journey touched people across the country and even around the globe, he said. “There have been thousands of cards and well-wishes,” Bowes said. “They came from everywhere. We actually got one from as far as Vietnam, from a little 9-year-old girl to Judy’s girls.”
He and Malinowski’s mother, Bonnie Bowes, are proud of the sentencing legislation and hopeful that Malinowski will have a voice at her own homicide trial. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said his office is working with Gahanna police and the original arson investigator to begin building a homicide case against Malinowski’s ex-boyfriend, Michael W. Slager.
“It would be our intention, and it has been all along, that should she pass away it was our intention to pursue a homicide charge,” O’Brien said. “This day was not unexpected for probably a long time, but it’s sad that it finally arrived.”
The Franklin County coroner’s office will perform an autopsy on Malinowski, and investigators expect that her injuries from the attack will be the proximate cause of her death.
Earlier this year, O’Brien won permission from a judge to “perpetuate” Malinowski’s testimony in case she died, allowing her to leave behind a deposition that he’ll push to use if Slager faces new charges.
“And then I think we’ll have a battle,” O’Brien said, as Slager probably would seek to prevent the deposition from being admitted in court.
Slager, 42, doused Malinowski with gasoline and set her ablaze on Aug. 2, 2015, after the two argued in a Gahanna bank parking lot. He entered no-contest pleas and was sentenced in December to the maximum 11 years in prison for felonious assault, aggravated arson and possession of criminal tools.
The gravity of Malinowski’s injuries — she was disfigured and endured more than 50 surgeries — and what many saw as Slager’s comparatively modest punishment led a lawmaker to sponsor legislation that would add six years to sentences in feloniousassault cases in which victims suffer permanent disfigurement or are incapacitated due to the use of an accelerant.
State Rep. Jim Hughes, a Republican from Upper Arlington, said the provision is similar to a gun-specification charge but for cases in which the deadly weapon is an accelerant.
“She was a very brave and courageous lady, and inspiration for her family and for everybody,” Hughes said.
The first time he met her, Hughes said, she declined to take her pain medication “so that she could be her sharpest, at her best, to explain why this legislation was so important. That’s a living legacy she’s leaving to everyone.”
Malinowski’s mother was by her daughter’s side every day. Their bond “cut through the darkness of heartbreak,” family friend John Dauphin said. “Judy and Bonnie have shined a guiding light to so many with their unwavering strength and love.”
To contribute to an online fundraiser to help with medical bills, funeral expenses and for Malinowski’s daughters, go to www.gofundme. com/hope-and-helpfor