April 02--More than a year after their daughter was killed by a drunken driver while away at college, a Winnetka couple is left with a bedroom full of her possessions and their memories, but little sense of justice.
The woman who caused the crash that killed Sarah McCausland and another young woman eventually pleaded guilty, but she will be eligible for parole in just seven years. Her parents had wanted a trial, but the complex DUI laws of New York state, where the crash occurred, posed the risk of an even lighter sentence -- even though the woman's own lawyer argued that she was too intoxicated to consent to a blood-alcohol test.
And there's no indication that the American Legion hall where the woman admitted to drinking that night before she plowed her car into a group of Bard College students has been held accountable, despite the fact that it does not have a liquor license.
For months, McCausland's parents, Andy and Sandra McCausland, channeled most of their grief into the court proceedings.
But "at the end, it doesn't bring her back, and it seems quite hollow," Sandra McCausland said.
Sarah McCausland had just turned 19 when she and another student, Evelina Martin Brown, 20, of Seattle, were killed in the crash just before midnight on Jan. 31, 2014, in Dutchess County, N.Y.,
This February the motorist, Carol Boeck, was sentenced to seven to 21 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Officials said Boeck, 64, had driven her red Jeep into the group of pedestrians and then kept going before she was arrested miles down the road at a gas station, officials said. She had a prior DUI conviction, and on that night she had a blood alcohol level of 0.23, nearly three times the state limit, according to court testimony.
Her sentencing has provided the victims' families little comfort, though.
Theirs is a story of overwhelming loss and a desire for accountability that may never be satisfied.
Parents of both victims question not only Boeck's choice to drink and drive that night but why she was allowed to drink alcohol for hours at an American Legion hall that does not hold a liquor license.
"The American Legion is supposed to be a service organization," said Brown's mother, Patreese Martin. "I am troubled that there was no oversight to stop providing alcohol hours and hours to (someone) who was obviously inebriated, and that not one member stepped forward to take her keys away."
Boeck told the court that she had been drinking at the American Legion hall in Tivoli, a small historic village near Bard College, about 90 miles north of New York City. Sarah McCausland had just completed her first semester at the private liberal arts school. She was enrolled in anthropology and psychology courses, joking with her dad that it was the most unemployable major ever.
While many American Legion facilities in New York hold a club license to sell liquor, the Tivoli hall is not one of them, according to the New York State Liquor Authority.
Boeck referred to the American Legion hall as a "bar" during her sentencing. She said she intended to sleep in her car outside the hall but drove away after she became cold.
"If they are serving alcohol, they should have a license," said Bill Crowley, spokesman for the state liquor authority. "Nothing comes up whatsoever. No applications. No licenses."
He said it would be up to local police to investigate allegations of "illegally trafficked alcohol."
Tivoli Mayor Bryan Cranna referred questions to the state liquor authority and American Legion officials, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A spokesman with the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, which has jurisdiction in Tivoli, said that it would be up to the state liquor authority to investigate the license question.
"My position is (the fault) lies flat on this woman who killed these two ladies," said Detective Lt. Patrick Whelan, adding that that was his personal opinion.
Within hours of the hit-and-run, a Winnetka police officer knocked on the McCauslands' door, informing them of their daughter's death. Sandra intuitively knew the news must be bad and asked the officer, "Is Sarah dead?"
"We just collapsed in such shock and pain," said Andy McCausland, recalling the officer's affirmative answer. "You almost thought you were in some dream, some nightmare."
Younger sister Tori, 17, was devastated as well. The junior at New Trier Township High School has struggled with depression since her sister died, telling the judge at Boeck's sentencing in February that she had to leave school at one point because of suicidal thoughts.
"I am nothing now. I am stuck in the now, living every dreadful day alone. Half of my soul is gone because of what she did," Tori said, reading her impact statement in court.
The students had been walking with others along the shoulder of a road, headed toward a shuttle that would return them to campus, officials said. A deputy who located Boeck at a gas station 7 miles away described finding her disheveled and glassy-eyed in the front seat of her jeep, according to news accounts. Police could see hair and blood on the front of her vehicle, and Brown's cellphone was wedged between the front bumper and grille, officials said in court.
In a statement read at her sentencing, Boeck said she recalled hitting something, but "I just didn't know what."
The day before Boeck was sentenced, the McCauslands said, they walked to the American Legion hall and knocked on the door. When a man answered, Sandra McCausland asked at what time she could be served a beer.
The man denied that alcohol was served at that location, McCausland said, and she confronted him with her daughter's death.
"If only one person had intervened, we might still have our child," she said she told him.
The McCauslands also question a New York law that, had the case gone to trial, would likely have forced the prosecution to prove that Boeck was driving recklessly, not merely that she was intoxicated. The law, while strengthened in recent years, can be challenging for prosecutors seeking to prove aggravated vehicular homicide -- partly because of its broad definition of "reckless driving."
"And yet this law was such an improvement over the old law," said Maureen McCormick, chief of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau for the Nassau County district attorney's office. She was not involved in Boeck's case but helped write legislation that lengthened penalties for DUI offenders under more expansive offense categories.
Before 2007,Boeck might have walked away after serving less than three years in prison, McCormick said.
"My heart breaks for that family," she said.
The Poughkeepsie Journal, calling for a change in a different New York statute, cited Boeck's case in an editorial last month, arguing that she could wind up serving only seven years in prison because, under the law, her sentences for leaving the scene of the crime and killing the two young women will be served concurrently.
"Currently, the law does not allow judges the discretion to deliver consecutive sentencing for multiple homicides caused by one act," according to the newspaper.
The McCauslands are angry that it took Boeck a year to admit to her guilt -- even if she was exercising her legal rights -- and say she never apologized for her actions.
But Boeck's lawyer, Moshe Horn, called her "deeply, deeply remorseful." He described the case as one of the saddest in his career.
A woman who answered Boeck's phone declined comment.
Families of both victims say they found strength through the support from friends, family and the Bard community.
"Both families will eventually heal, but it is impossible to ever fully recover from such a devastating loss," Martin said.
Sometimes McCausland's parents sit quietly in her bedroom, imagining their daughter's presence while surrounded by her possessions. A ukulele and music stand, a candle, colorful art and Bohemian-style clothing -- all things that reflected the teenager's interest in world cultures.
Large boxes shipped home from Bard College take up much of the small space, but her parents aren't ready to open those yet. Also left untouched is a plastic bag of "evidence" released after the sentencing that contains McCausland's cellphone, college ID, keys and a tea bag.
They were the last items she carried while she was alive.
"I want to carry on Sarah's passion. She was always growing, always seeking," Andy McCausland said.
The family spread some of Sarah's ashes across the countryside in Iceland last summer, during a journey she also was supposed to make. She had been infatuated with the country and was teaching herself the language when preparing for the trip.
"She is now part of that beautiful landscape," Sandra said.
Also an avid knitter, Sarah had started constructing a dark red yarn sock that her parents found in her dormitory room shortly after she died.
The sock and knitting needles are on display at Zia Art Gallery in Winnetka, which donated 20 percent of proceeds from an Iceland-inspired exhibit toward a performing arts scholarship in Sarah's name at New Trier High School.
"When we went in her dorm room -- that was the hardest thing we have ever done because everything was frozen in time," her father said. "I discovered this sock she was knitting. It wasn't finished. It represented so much of her life. It was unfinished."
lblack@tribpub.com
