No alcohol in system of officer killed in crash
DELRAY BEACH — A Delray Beach police officer killed by an alleged drunk driver while vacationing in Key West last month had no alcohol in her system when the crash took place, according to toxicology results released Monday by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner.
Christine Braswell, 40, died after a motor scooter she was o p e r a t i n g s t r u c k a v e h i c l e driven by Lacy Morris, 32. Morris allegedly cut in front of Braswell as she was turning into a gas station at about 3 a.m. April 8.
The toxicology report does indi- cate drugs were in Braswell’s system, but those substances were a result of medical treatment she received after the crash at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, according to a medical examiner’s spokesman.
Officer Bernenda Marc, 25, was riding as a passenger on the scooter that Braswell was driving when the crash took place. Marc was seriously injured.
Morris is being held at a Monroe County jail, facing charges that include DUI manslaughter. Morris was arrested May 2 in Broward County shortly after it was revealed that her blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was 0.17, more than two times over the legal limit of 0.08.
Despite the findings that his client was intoxicated and Braswell was not at the time of the crash, attorney Evan Hoffman said he wasn’t “taking anything at face value” and was planning on “challenging everything.”
“Just because it’s on a sheet of paper doesn’t make it true,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he had informa- tion from his own private invest i g a tor s t hat re veal e d where Braswell and Marc “were coming from” the night of the crash. The information will be helpful to Morris, Hoffman said, but he declined to give specifics.
Braswell, who joined the Delray Beach police in 2005, was the sole female officer on the department’s SWAT team and often acted as the point person in team operations. She also taught at the police academy at Broward College and was a mentor for the Delray Beach Police Explorer program.
Morris is being held on $170,000 bail at the Monroe County Detention Center. Keep up with The Post’s complete coverage of Delray Beach on its Facebook page dedicated to the city. On Facebook, search for Post on Delray Beach.
Hoffman said that Morris had been in solitary confinement since she was taken last week from a Miami-Dade County Jail to Monroe County as jail officials evaluated her mental health. Morris has since been moved to the jail’s general population.
She is scheduled to be arraigned June 1.