Higher bail for woman charged in fatal crash
A Pennsburg woman arrested in the death of a Pottstown motocyclist violated courtordered restrictions.
NORRISTOWN >> A Pennsburg woman awaiting trial on a vehicular homicide charge in connection with the death of a Pottstown motorcyclist has seen her bail increased after she allegedly defied court orders not to drive and failed to comply with a urine testing program while free on bail.
Abigail Katherine Ruppert, 23, who listed addresses in the 100 block of Fourth Street and in the 700 block of Seminary Street, was taken to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after county Judge Garrett D. Page increased her bail to $75,000 cash.
Ruppert previously had been free on $50,000 unsecured bail while awaiting trial on charges of homicide by vehicle, recklessly endangering other persons and careless and reckless driving in connection with a 12:25 a.m. Oct. 7, 2015, three-vehicle crash along Layfield Road in Upper Hanover that claimed the life of motorcyclist Jonathan Aaron Olszta, 50, of Pottstown.
Assistant District Attorney Meghan Carney asked the judge to revoke or increase Ruppert’s bail after Ruppert was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle by Marlborough Township police on March 29 after she allegedly took a relative’s vehicle without permission. Ruppert faces a preliminary hearing on the new charge in May.
As a condition of her previously set bail in the vehicular homicide case, Ruppert had to surrender her driver’s license and was “not allowed to drive,” according to court documents.
Carney also alleged Ruppert also failed to regularly report, as required by bail conditions, for urine testing by county probation officials. Officials alleged Ruppert last reported for urine testing on Feb. 7.
In court papers seeking the bail revocation or increase Carney alleged Ruppert’s “conduct constitutes a violation of the conditions of bail and her release conditions.”
Court documents also indicate Ruppert had been in a methadone clinic program under a doctor’s care.
With the homicide by vehicle charges, prosecutors alleged Ruppert was driving a Pontiac minivan southbound on Layfield Road, near Kings Road, in Upper Hanover when she crossed a double yellow line and struck the driver’s side of a northbound Mitsubishi Lancer, operated by Cassandra Rambo, age and address unavailable, and then continued in the opposing lane of travel and struck a northbound Harley-Davidson motorcycle operated by Olszta.
Olszta was pronounced dead at the scene by officials of the county coroner’s office, according to the criminal complaint filed by state police at Skippack. Medical examiners said Olszta died as a result of a tear in the aorta causing hemorrhaging in his chest cavity and that he also suffered lacerations to his spleen and liver.
Rambo and Ruppert suffered minor injuries and were transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital for treatment, court papers indicate.
Ruppert allegedly told police she did not remember much about the crash.
“The only recollection Ruppert had of the crash was seeing headlights followed by two loud ‘smashes,’” state police Trooper Mark Musser alleged in the criminal complaint.
Rambo told police she saw headlights traveling toward her vehicle in her lane of travel and “didn’t have anywhere to go and then was spinning,” according to the arrest affidavit.
With the homicide by vehicle charge, authorities alleged Ruppert “recklessly or with gross negligence” caused the death of another person by violating traffic laws including failure to keep right and disregarding traffic lane or by careless or reckless driving.
A trial date has not been set.