Drunk driving charges authorized in Swan Boat Club crash; lawyer says medical condition to blame
MONROE COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Alcohol, seizures, fleeing another crash scene – competing narratives about what led to a fatal crash at the Swan Boat Club emerged during the suspect's arraignment Tuesday.
Marshella Chidester, 66, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death, and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury in the crash on Saturday that killed two children at the Berlin Township boat club.
Security video showed Chidester speeding through the business parking lot before slamming into the building, where a group was gathered for a child's birthday party. The crash killed 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and 5-year-old Zayn Phillips and injured more than a dozen other people.
The prosecution argued that Chidester had a "very severe substance abuse issue," while her attorney claimed that she suffered from a medical condition that caused her legs to freeze up while she was driving.
"Some things we don’t have control over," attorney Bill Colovos said. "This is not a monster."
Colovos noted that Chidester had been driving for 50 years and had a clean driving record before the crash.
"She drives like a little old lady when she drives. You’ve gotta drive around her," he said.
Though her blood-alcohol level was not revealed in court, prosecutors said Chidester blew "significantly over the legal limit" on a preliminary breath test (PBT).
Colovos said this isn't true and argued that his client only had a glass of wine while eating lunch at a local bar four hours prior to the crash. PBT results are not admissible in court, and the results of a blood draw for blood-alcohol level are not back yet, bu are expected to be in by Friday.
While speaking, Colovos was frequently interrupted by family members of the victims, who were attending the arraignment via Zoom. They shouted that Chidester was a drunk and said they had heard rumors that she drank in her vehicle in parking lots.
Colovos repeatedly pushed back against the drinking and driving claims. He said she has been suffering from seizures since November, takes medication for the condition, and needed to stop driving for several months in the fall due to seizures. She was cleared to drive after that, he said.
Family of the victims pushed back against this, saying that she shouldn't have had any alcohol if she was taking medication. Raquel Smouthers, Alanah and Zayn's aunt. asserted that Chidester shouldn't have been driving, regardless of alcohol use, due to her medical condition.
Alanah and Zayn
"She still chose to drink, she still chose to get into that vehicle," Smouthers said.
Another person who spoke at the arraignment, Joshua Stith, said he is a member of the boat club and has seen Chidester intoxicated on numerous occasions. He claimed he has watched other people walk her out of Swan Boat Club "dozens and dozens of times."
"I believe decades of her drunk driving have just caught up to her," Stith said.
Though security video of Chidester in the parking lot moments before the crash has been shared, what happened before that is up for debate. Stith claimed Chidester hit another vehicle and a tree down the road before the boat club crash.
"I believe that she was fleeing from hitting the truck," Stith said, adding that he thinks she lost control after going over a speed bump at the entrance of the club parking lot.
After the emotional arraignment, the judge granted the prosecution's request for a $1.5 million bond.
"She is a danger to this community and that is illustrated no clearer than the two dead children that she is directly responsible for," the prosecutor said.