The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kirtland man pleads guilty
Admits to hit-and-run crash that killed Mentor police officer
A 25-year-old Kirtland man has admitted to a hit-and-run crash that killed Mentor police officer Mathew Mazany.
Brian Anthony pleaded March 1 to second-degree felony aggravated vehicular assault, third-degree felony failure to stop after an accident and misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of the two; and failing to proceed with due caution, and/or failing to change lanes when approaching a stationary public safety vehicle displaying emergency lights.
A sentencing hearing in front of Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge John P. O’Donnell is scheduled for April 12.
Anthony faces a maximum of 11.5 years in prison. The aggravated vehicular homicide charges carries a minimum mandatory prison time of two years.
Bond has been revoked. Anthony has been in jail in lieu of bond since his arrest.
The crash occurred 1 a.m., June 24. Mazany, 41, was struck by a dark-colored Jeep as he was providing backup to another officer for a traffic stop on state Route 2.
Based on some partial plate information obtained from the in-car camera, the Mentor Police Department was able to use technology and social media to check for similar vehicles in the Lake County area.
A person who had seen the police department’s photo of the suspect’s vehicle noticed a Jeep with damage parked in the Mentor Lagoons Marina and called officers. They traced it to a Kirtland resident who said that his son was using the Jeep and had not come home the previous night.
The father was contacted by his son and encouraged him to turn himself in to the police at the marina. Anthony was taken into custody later that day.
Assistant Lake County Prosecutor Anthony DiPierro Jr. said that Anthony had been drinking in the hours prior to the crash, first at a friend’s house in Lakeline and then at a bar in Downtown Willoughby.
Ubers were taken to and from the bar to the home in Lakeline. After returning to the home, Anthony left in his car. He traveled first to Euclid where DiPierro said Anthony bought drugs.
A short time later Anthony was traveling on state Route 2 where he struck Mazany. He also struck the other officer’s cruiser as well as a stopped vehicle.
DiPerro said that Anthony drove to the Mentor Lagoons Marina (where he damaged a gate). Friends at the lagoons described Anwere thony as blackout drunk, DiPerro said. Blood and urine samples collected after Anthony turned himself in. Alcohol and a heroin metabolite were found in his urine, DiPerro said.
Prior to the guilty plea, prosecutors waived a second-degree felony failure to stop after an accident charge was dismissed. DiPierro said the charge cannot be substantiated.
“To be guilty of the F-2 stopping after an accident, the law requires that the defendant himself subjectively at the time he committed the offense knew he struck a person and that he killed that person prior to leaving the scene of the crash,” DiPierro said.
He said they “exhaustively investigated that legal requirement” and in doing so determined the evidence does not lead to the conclusion required by law that Anthony subjectively knew at the time of the crash that he struck a person.