By Jason Riley
The Courier-Journal
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Calling her crime “inexcusable” and a violation of the public trust, a judge sentenced a former emergency medical technician to 10 years in prison on Monday for driving an ambulance while on methadone and causing a wreck in which a patient was killed.
“You are not a bad person, but you did a terrible thing,” Jefferson Circuit Court Judge McKay Chauvin told Tammy Brewer while deciding against giving her probation on a manslaughter conviction.
However, Chauvin said he will consider giving Brewer shock probation in 120 days if she gets substance-abuse treatment in prison.
The prosecution and family of the Vickie Whobrey, the patient killed in the 2008 crash, argued against probation Monday, saying Brewer has not admitted she was on methadone during the crash and has shown no emotion over the death.
Brewer was driving Whobrey, 54, to Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital at 1850 Bluegrass Ave. in southwestern Louisville when the crash occurred April 3, 2008.
The ambulance struck and severed a telephone pole, went through a drainage ditch, crossed Van Hoose Road, entered another drainage ditch, hit an earthen embankment, continued up the embankment and hit a chain-link fence before coming to rest in a yard.
Besides second-degree manslaughter, Brewer pleaded guilty in December to second-degree assault, wanton endangerment, criminal mischief and driving under the influence.
Maggie Whobrey, the daughter of Vickie Whobrey, told Chauvin in court Monday that her mother’s death has changed her life and made her fear ever having to call EMS for help.
Someone that was supposed to help her mother instead was responsible for her death, Maggie Whobrey said.
“It just tears me apart,” she said.
Brewer wiped tears away from her eyes as Whobrey spoke, the first time she has shown emotion during a court hearing in the case.
“I do have remorse, and I do want to apologize to them,” Brewer said in a short statement to the court.
As part of the plea agreement, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Van De Rostyne will not object to shock probation, leaving the decision up to Chauvin.
Chauvin told Brewer not to “sit on your hands” for the next four months and to address her drug problems and convince the judge that she will not be a risk to the community if released early.
Maggie Whobrey said she and her family will be at the shock probation hearing and object to her release.
“She’s not even admitted she has a problem,” Whobrey said. “How can she get help for something she hasn’t admitted?”
Van De Rostyne said Brewer still denies that she took methadone that day.
Brewer told investigators she lost control of the ambulance when she swerved to avoid a pedestrian who darted in her path on Rockford Lane.
But a female witness driving behind the ambulance told The Courier-Journal she saw no pedestrian and the ambulance had been traveling erratically for at least half a mile.
Vickie Whobrey, who was being taken to the hospital because of a prolonged nosebleed, was taken by another ambulance to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead of blunt-force trauma.
Brewer told police she had not taken any narcotics that day, and a drug screen conducted by University Hospital after the accident showed no traceable amounts of any drugs in her system.
But a test by the Kentucky State Police lab found Brewer had a “therapeutic” level of methadone in her system. Brewer was not being treated at the closest clinic for methadone, a synthetic narcotic often used as a painkiller and to treat heroin addiction, according to court records.
EMS records indicate that before coming to work at 10 p.m. April 2, about 2½ hours before the crash, Brewer had a headache and took two pills that she later told a supervisor she believed were over-the-counter headache medications.
During the shift, Brewer’s partner, paramedic Gregory Gavin, sent a text message to a co-worker saying, “You should see her (Brewer), she is loopy,” and requesting that a supervisor be contacted, according to court records.
The co-worker, EMT Robert Tousignant, said he replied: “OK to drive?” Gavin’s response, according to Tousignant: “Her, no.”
Concerned about her behavior, Gavin told Brewer to turn off the ambulance’s lights and sirens and proceed “Code 1, not Code 3, to the hospital,” according to court records.
“I felt Code 3 would have compromised the safety of everyone,"avin said, adding that Whobrey’s condition was stable at the time.
An EMS official “had started to take action by attempting to call” Brewer’s ambulance and “put them out of service and have Brewer taken for a drug screen,” but the crash occurred first, according to court records.
Brewer told police she was turning off the sirens when she saw a teen dart in front of her and she swerved.
Reprinted with permission from The Courier-Journal.