Crime & Safety
No Criminal Charges for Driver Who Hit Annapolis High Coach While Cycling
The August incident became known statewide when activists urged the state's attorney to press charges under a new state law.
In a case that received statewide attention, a motorist who struck and killed an Annapolis High School coach that was cycling on Riva Road in Edgewater in August will not face criminal charges, according to the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office.
Annapolis High School coach Patricia Cunningham, 50, of Annapolis, was killed in August when the bicycle she was riding was struck by a minivan driven by Whitney Decesaris, 37, of Calvert County. Both Cunningham and Decesaris were traveling south on Riva Road when the incident occurred. Cunningham later died at a hospital.
A Patch blog post written by Jim Titus spawned a letter writing campaign on the Bike Maryland website, urging individuals to contact the state's attorney's office and encourage it to pursue homicide charges against Decesaris.
"Two years ago Maryland created a new crime of vehicular negligent homicide ..., which allows prosecutors to seek criminal penalties when a sober-but-aggressive driver causes an accident that kills someone. Anne Arundel County prosecutors should be seriously thinking about using this statute in the case of Patricia Cunningham," Tutus wrote in a Patch blog post.Â
According to the state's attorney's office, the grand jury declined to indict Decesaris on criminal charges because it did not find probable cause to charge her with criminally negligent manslaughter. To indict on that charge, the grand jury would have had to have found Decesaris "drove in a manner that was a gross deviation of the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise under the circumstances," stated a news release.
Decesaris will still face several citations from the Anne Arundel County police, including:Â
- Failure of vehicle driver to exercise care to avoid a collision with bicycle operated by person
- Driving left of roadway center and overtaking and passing when unsafe
- Negligent driving vehicle in careless or imprudent manner endangering any property or the life or person of any individual
- Failure to control speed to avoid a collision
In a press release, State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess acknowledged the tragic loss of a community leader. She also said in the release that "the newly enacted Criminally Negligent Manslaughter statute specifically excludes acts of ordinary negligence and [the state's attorney's] office and the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association has sponsored and continually lobbies for a more appropriate legal standard of proof for negligent manslaughter."
Cunningham's death created a movement in the local cycling community to increase safety and raise awareness of bicycle safety laws in the state. Read more here:Â
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