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The Journal-Times
LUKE FEUERHERM luke.feuerherm@journaltimes.com
June 05, 2013 8:35 am
RACINE — A Town of Burlington woman faces charges after police reportedly found a used syringe on the floor of the vehicle she was driving during a collision that injured at least four people.
Casie L. Hewitt, 21, of the 6900 block of McHenry Street, has been charged with one count of possession of narcotic drugs and four counts of causing injury by operating a vehicle while intoxicated. She made her initial appearance in Racine County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Police were originally dispatched Aug. 8, 2011, for a crash at Highway P near the Highway 36 bypass and reported two damaged vehicles and six injured people, according to the criminal complaint.
A witness who had reportedly been following Hewitt for about a mile before the crash told police that Hewitt’s vehicle crossed the double yellow center line, ending up completely in the oncoming lane of traffic where it crashed into another vehicle head on, according to the complaint.
Hewitt was reportedly the only occupant in her vehicle at the time of the accident, while the van she allegedly collided with had five occupants, including two 3-year-old children, according to the complaint. Four of the people in the van at the time had specific injuries noted in the complaint, including one of the adult passengers who has reportedly undergone a number of surgeries since the accident.
As police were photographing the vehicle driven by Hewitt, they reportedly located an empty syringe on the driver’s side floorboard that was found to have contained the prescription pain medication Oxycodone, according to the complaint.
Hewitt reportedly told police that the syringe was “from a long time ago,” according to the complaint, and said that she had taken Percocet — a pain medication that is a mixture of Oxycodone and acetaminophen — earlier in the day that she did not have a prescription to take.
A blood sample taken after the accident was sent to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and reportedly contained levels of Oxycodone, Clonazepam (a prescription seizure and anxiety medication) and marijuana.