Washington Drug Litigation Lawyers

On Duty Corrections Officer Believed To be On Drugs crashes Into Driver

KITSAP COUNTY, Wash.A routine trip from the grocery store changed a Kitsap woman's life forever, when a Washington State corrections officer, suspected of being impaired, plowed into her vehicle head-on at 63 miles per hour, leaving her in a coma with a broken neck and permanent injuries.

Now in a lawsuit filed March 3, 2005, Barbara Starkel is holding the Washington State Department of Corrections responsible for turning a blind eye to the officer's suspected drug and alcohol use, and for leaving him on unsupervised home duty despite a host of warning signs.

The state employee, Mark Aldrich, was speeding at the time of the accident and admitted to having consumed two 16-ounce bottles of beer two hours before the crash, according to police records. Aldrich refused to submit to a voluntary blood draw or undergo a drug-use evaluation at the scene.

"The fact that Ms. Starkel suffered such devastating injuries due to carelessness and alleged substance abuse is bad enough," said Tony Shapiro, attorney for the Starkels and partner in the Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. "Even more troubling is the fact that the person responsible was a corrections officer -- a man whose job it is to uphold the safety of
innocent people like Barbara."

At the time of the collision, Mark Aldrich was employed as a community corrections officer with the state of Washington. But due to a pending investigation into his suspected purchase and abuse of illegal drugs, he was placed on home assignment, the suit details. Under the terms of his assignment, Aldrich was to remain at and work from his home from 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. and remain available by phone during that time, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that while Aldrich was on home assignment, the department investigated claims that he possessed and was using illegal drugs in the workplace. The DOC was also repeatedly notified that Aldrich was driving about the community during work hours, in clear violation of the conditions of his home assignment.

Tony Shapiro said that the Department of Corrections overlooked Aldrich's violations of home duty and left him unsupervised, perhaps with the intention of ensnaring him in a drug sting operation. "We believe the DOC knew about Aldrich's questionable behavior and drug use. Yet they made the community's safety a second-rate priority, hoping that they would catch him buying drugs," said Shapiro. "Unfortunately, the result of that miscalculation is the tragic accident involving Barbara Starkel."

The Department of Corrections took no steps to supervise Mark Aldrich while he was on home assignment, despite knowledge of his suspicious behavior and violations, the suit alleges. The complaint also states that had Aldrich
been properly supervised, he would not have been taking drugs and alcohol, and would not have been driving during work hours, thus preventing the collision.

In one incident on October 23, 2003, an employee observed Aldrich sitting at his desk with his head hanging down below the level of the desk, state documents disclose. The coworker called his name and, according to the document: "he looked up at me with a long, thin orange needle cover in his mouth."

"We intend to show that the DOC's inadequate supervision of Aldrich and failure to keep him from endangering the public resulted in the accident," Shapiro said. "We intend to hold the department accountable for its actions." The suit seeks damages for past and future medical expenses, wage loss, and pain and suffering.

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