Driver in fatal crash fined after agreement states he did not know his license was suspended

Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)

Oct. 3--A man whose vehicle slid into a disabled vehicle on a snow-slicked stretch of the Beltline on New Year's Eve, killing a Lake Mills Fire Department captain who was helping another driver, was fined $7,500 Thursday after pleading no contest to a traffic ticket.

Samuel P. Cremers, 29, of Marathon, who was arrested after the Dec. 31 crash that caused the death of Christopher Truman, 46, was ultimately charged with causing death by knowingly driving while suspended. That charge is a felony, but under the law without proof that a driver knew his license was suspended, the matter is a civil forfeiture, carrying a fine between $7,500 and $10,000.

The case was decided Thursday by written stipulation between Cremers; his lawyer, Shaun O'Connell; and Assistant District Attorney William Brown. The $7,500 fine was ordered in writing by Circuit Judge Ellen Berz. Under the stipulation, the case became a civil matter and not a crime.

Under the agreement, Cremers admitted that his license was suspended, but Brown agreed he could not prove Cremers knew at the time of the crash that his license was suspended.

"This is not a good or perfect result," Brown wrote in a letter to Berz supporting the stipulation. "Unfortunately, this is the only result possible and represents what the state could prove at trial."

"It is abundantly clear to me that Christopher Truman was, and is, a hero," Brown wrote. "As a representative of the executive branch of government, however, my rule is to enforce the law. That is what I have done here. Some may disagree with the law, however, both you and I are required to enforce and apply the laws as written by the Wisconsin State Legislature."

Cremers was arrested after the crash on a tentative charge of homicide by drunken driving, a 25-year felony. A blood test found, however, that his blood alcohol concentration was 0.047%, well below the 0.08% threshold for drivers under Wisconsin law. A preliminary breath test had Cremers' blood alcohol concentration at 0.079 percent, but breath tests are not admissible in court.

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Under the stipulation, Brown agreed that although Cremers' driver's license had been suspended by a municipal court in Columbia County for failing to pay a fine for a traffic ticket, Cremers was never notified that judgment was entered against him in the matter.

The municipal court file indicates Cremers was not sent a notice that judgment had been entered against him for the ticket, according to the stipulation.

"No evidence exists that Samuel Cremers knew his license was suspended other than an indication in the Department of Transportation records that notice of the suspension was sent to a former address of Mr. Cremers," the stipulation states. "The state concedes that it cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cremers knew that his license was suspended on Dec. 31, 2018."

Cremers was ticketed in September 2017 for failure to carry insurance. Judgment was entered against him on Dec. 13, 2017, by the Eastern Columbia County Joint Municipal Court. Cremers' license was suspended on July 7, 2018.

A criminal complaint states that Monona police were dispatched to the New Year's Eve crash site, near the Yahara River bridge, just before 7 p.m. A short time later, dispatchers were told that a man was down on the pavement.

A witness told police he was a passenger in an eastbound car that had spun out and struck the Beltline's inner concrete barrier. He said another man, identified as Truman, stopped to help, the complaint states. Another vehicle, a red Ford Escape, then struck the crashed car on the passenger side door, pushing the car against Truman.

Cremers told police he saw too late that a vehicle was stopped in the road, after a vehicle that was in front of him shifted to another lane. He said he veered onto the left shoulder but there was a vehicle there as well, and he could not stop to avoid a collision with it, the complaint states.

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