Widow calls for ‘consequences’
Police ‘need to be held accountable’ for role in death
The heartbroken widow of a Bedford man killed by an alleged drug user — minutes after being stopped by a trooper — called on state police and other authorities yesterday to do right by her fatherless kids and get to the bottom of what happened.
“They need to be held accountable,” Alexis Weisz said outside Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, where Lynn DeWolfe pleaded not guilty to motor vehicle homicide in connection with the tragedy last summer on Interstate 95 in Reading.
Former Attorney General Thomas Reilly is handling the probe of police procedure launched in May by state police Col. Kerry A. Gilpin. Department spokesman David Procopio said yesterday the investigation is ongoing.
“Everybody makes mistakes and I get that,” Weisz, a mother of three, said tearfully. “But when a mistake causes someone to die, there needs to be consequences.”
That the actions of state police may have played a role in the death of Cornell University graduate Christopher Weisz, 42, “adds a whole other element and layer to our grief,” his widow said. “His death could have been prevented.”
DeWolfe was allegedly taking anxiety and pain medications Aug. 24, 2017, when on a trip to the beach she raised alarm among other motorists by weaving all over the road. State police allegedly failed to broadcast a warning about her based on 911 calls.
DeWolfe was then involved in a crash on Route 3 in Burlington, but the breath-test device installed in her car allowed the engine to start, and trooper Daniel Hanafin let her continue on her way.
Less than 20 minutes later, prosecutors allege DeWolfe struck a car on I-95 in Reading, causing it to spin into oncoming traffic, where it fatally hit Christopher Weisz on his motorcycle.
“Lynn started the chain of events that day,” Weisz said, “but she should have been stopped, and I just need them to investigate and make sure things were done properly.”
A stoic DeWolfe, 51, of Tyngsboro, a twice-convicted drunken driver, pleaded not guilty yesterday to motor vehicle homicide, operating under the influence of drugs, operating to endanger and three counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage. Second Assistant Middlesex Clerk Magistrate Matthew Day scheduled a dangerousness hearing for July 25. DeWolfe remains on house arrest and GPS monitoring — allowed out only to attend a sobriety program and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “The laws didn’t protect Chris,” Weisz said. “My husband was just going to work to support his family and she wanted to go to the beach that day. That’s heartbreaking. My kids are without their father for the rest of their lives.”
Meanwhile, in unrelated cases from the state police overtime scandal, probable-cause hearings scheduled yesterday in federal court for former state police Lt. David W. Wilson and trooper Gary Herman were moved to July 25. Former trooper Paul Cesan has waived his right to a hearing. All three are charged with embezzlement from an agency receiving government funds in connection with the Troop E scandal alleging they raked in money for overtime shifts on the Massachusetts Turnpike they either didn’t work or skipped out on early.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. dismissed the so-called “Troopergate” lawsuits brought against two nowretired heads of the state police by troopers Ryan Sceviour and Ali Rei, who claimed their superiors unjustly forced them to scrub embarrassing facts from reports about the arrest last fall of Alli Bibaud, daughter of state Judge Timothy Bibaud, on drugged- and drunken-driving charges. O’Toole ruled the civil actions failed to meet the proper federal standard for arguing there was a conspiracy to violate the troopers’ due process, and that other claims belonged in state court.