Woman gets year in DUI, crash
Stratford resident’s car struck cruiser, injured cop
BRIDGEPORT — A Stratford woman who texted a friend that she was driving drunk just minutes before she crashed her car into a police officer’s vehicle was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison.
Caroline Dillon broke into tears as she apologized for her actions. But that did little to appease Stratford Police Detective Louis Alexander, who suffered serious injuries and nerve damage in the crash and may never return to duty.
“The accident has changed my entire life and I will never be the same,” Alexander said in a statement read to Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti by Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffany Lockshier as Alexander sat in the back of the courtroom. “I believe some time in prison will make her actions sink in, and hopefully she will not do this again.”
Dillon’s lawyer, Edward
Gavin, told the judge his client suffered serious burns in the crash.
Dillon previously pleaded no contest to seconddegree assault and operating under the influence.
The judge sentenced her to five years, suspended after she serves one year in prison and followed by three years of probation.
Shortly before 1 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2017, Dillon, 23, of Sands Place, Stratford, was driving her Honda Civic westbound on Stratford Avenue at Main Street when she struck a sports utility vehicle being driven southbound on Main Street by Alexander, Lockshier said.
The impact caused the SUV to roll over; it ended up on its roof in front of the Pickle Barrel.
The detective was taken to Bridgeport Hospital with broken ribs and other serious injuries while Dillon was taken to the hospital with serious burns on her legs, the prosecutor said.
At the hospital, Lockshier said, Dillon was found to have a blood alcohol level of .18, more than twice the legal limit. In addition, when they later checked her cell phone, police said, they discovered she had sent a series of texts seconds before the crash.
“I’m so drunk, I’m driving and trying to chill,” police said Dillon texted.