{"id":185195,"date":"2024-10-22T21:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T02:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=185195"},"modified":"2024-10-22T21:00:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T02:00:56","slug":"charge-in-car-bike-crash-lowered-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/10\/22\/charge-in-car-bike-crash-lowered-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Charge in car-bike crash lowered again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAULDING &#8212; It appears for the second time, a charge has been lowered in the case of a Paulding woman accused of hitting and killing a young boy in September of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cynthia Switzer, 47, was indicted last October by a Paulding County grand jury on a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, a second degree felony. In late August of this year, the charge was dismissed and replaced by a first degree misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide, and the case was transferred to Paulding County Municipal Court. She entered a not guilty plea on September 24 and was released on her own recognizance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"234\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Gavel-photo-350.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-146837\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, records from Paulding County Municipal Court show the negligent homicide charge was amended to vehicular manslaughter, a second degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $750 fine and a mandatory license suspension of six months to three years. Court records show the charge was amended and filed on October 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The original charge, the lesser charge and the newly amended charge are tied to the September 4, 2023, traffic crash on Paulding County Road 103, just west of Paulding. Switzer\u2019s car hit Ross Erwin Myers, 12, from behind. He was ejected from the bicycle and was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol collected a urine sample to determine if Switzer had consumed alcohol before the crash. The results showed her blood alcohol content was was more than three times over the legal limit, .272. However, defense attorney E. Charles Bates contested the results, citing a possible link between glucose levels, alcohol test results and diabetes, which Switzer has, plus body cam recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Switzer was originally scheduled to stand trial in May of this year, but it was delayed due to various motions filed by Bates. She was then scheduled to stand trial in December in Paulding County Common Pleas Court, before the case was transferred to Paulding County Municipal Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The original charge of aggravated vehicular homicide carried a mandatory prison sentence of 2-8 years, a fine of up to $15,000 and a mandatory license suspension for life. The negligent homicide charge was punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attempts to reach Paulding County Prosecutor Joseph Burkard to explain why the charge was lowered again were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor PAULDING &#8212; It appears for the second time, a charge has been lowered in the case of a Paulding woman accused of hitting and killing a young boy in September of 2023. Cynthia Switzer, 47, was indicted last October by a Paulding County grand jury on a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 22:44:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185199,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185195\/revisions\/185199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}