After a night of drinking with her husband, Sharlene Simon, 46, hit three teenage boys with her car killing one and severely injuring the other two. Now she’s suing the surviving victims and their families for causing her “emotional distress.”
Sharlene and her husband Jules, a York Regional Police officer, left a bar in Ontario, Canada and drove home separately around 1:30 AM on Sunday, October 28, 2012. Richard Esch and Jake Roberts, both 16, were riding their bicycles with Brandon Majewski, 17, when they were struck by Simon’s SUV.
The impact shattered Esch’s pelvis and threw him into a nearby ditch. Majewski was hit by Simon’s bumper, windshield, and roof before being thrown into the air and sent crashing into the ground. He suffered catastrophic injuries that led to his death two hours later. Roberts sustained minor injuries.
Police arrived soon after, but neither Simon nor her husband were required to perform a Breathalyzer test. A toxicology report found that none of the three victims had drugs or alcohol in their systems, but Simon later admitted that she had been drinking. She also admitted that she had been driving 90 km/h in an 80 km/h zone and did not see the teens. According to a South Simcoe Police police report, Simon claimed that she thought she had struck a deer. That same report shows that all three teens were wearing proper reflective clothing.
Melanie Lachance, a 36-year-old teacher, pulled over when she saw the accident happen. She held Majewski’s hand as he lay dying while Simon and her husband were released without question.
Lachance is one of the many witnesses who were troubled by the fact that they were required to stay and answer questions until 5:30 AM while the drunk driver responsible for the accident was sent home. She told The Barrie Examiner that Simon’s husband asked her for their location so he could call the police. He went back to his wife’s vehicle and did not return. When the police arrived, Simon and her husband were immediately allowed to leave. “That didn’t sit right with me,” Lachance said.
When police failed to charge Simon with any wrongdoing. The Majewski family sued her for $900,000 claiming that she was speeding and driving under the influence by her own admission at the time of the accident.
Simon has since filed a $1.35 million lawsuit against the victims and their families. Simon accuses her victims of “not applying their brakes properly” and being “incompetent bicyclists” in her suit. Her lawsuit holds the victims responsible for her emotional distress and PTSD. Simon claims to be suffering from depression, anxiety, irritability, and that “enjoyment of life has been irretrievably lessened” since the accident.
“In my entire career I’ve never heard of anyone ever suing a dead child that they killed,” Majewski family lawyer, Brian Cameron, told the Toronto Sun. “It’s like saying: ‘I’m really upset because I killed a kid so now I’m going to sue the parents and get some money’ … It’s disturbing.”
Michael Ellis, Simon’s lawyer, says the lawsuit is completely reasonable and that his client requires money to help her recover from the damages she suffered including therapy costs for her emotional trauma. The surviving victims and their families do not agree.
“If this woman was a real person, with a real heart, she would not have done this to us. We have nothing,” Terry Esch, Richard’s father, was reported to say in The Barrie Examiner. Both of Richard’s parents have lost income as they took time off work to help their son recover from his injuries suffered by Simon’s SUV. Their losses are negligible compared to those suffered by the Majewski family.
“He was my best friend,” Richard said about Brandon.
“These were good kids, they’re not like other kids,” Terry said. “They weren’t out at a party drinking and smoking dope, they were out on their bicycles.”
“I would like to know why she wasn’t charged and why she and her husband were allowed to leave the scene,” Terry said about Simon.
Cameron believes a botched police investigation saved Simon from being charged. “The police made several errors in their assessment and we believe that the science will completely back that,” Cameron said. “We now have credible evidence based on science that will show Simon was driving between 103 and 117 km/h at the time of initial impact.”
Cameron told The Toronto Sun that he has evidence suggestion Simon was texting at the time of the accident. “Our evidence suggests Simon admitted to a friend that she was reading a text from her mother at the time of the impact,” he said despite Simon’s denials to have ever made such a statement. “It will be up to the judge or jury to determine whom is telling the truth here.”
Simon has yet to apologize to any of her victims or their families. “It’s cruel, and it’s too much to bear,” Brandon’s mother, Venetta, told The Sun. “She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she’s in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares. What she has done will always haunt me … This has ripped our souls out.”
Now the local community is rallying to help the surviving victims and their families fight Simon’s lawsuit. One Facebook group was instrumental in spreading word about the lawsuit to media groups around the globe.
Simon’s supporters have created their own Facebook page title Stand by Sharlene Simon. They encourage the victims and their families to “let it go.”
Could you “let it go” if this happened to someone in your family?
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