Donovan’s daughter let off on DWI

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

TONAWANDA — The daughter of a North Tonawanda city councilwoman was arrested for DWI following an accident two weeks ago, but the charges were subsequently reduced by prosecutors to two traffic tickets.

Sara E. Donovan, 23, daughter of Councilwoman Nancy Donovan, was arrested by North Tonawanda police at 3:09 a.m. July 11, charging her with misdemeanor DWI and failure to maintain her lane. The incident occurred on Payne Avenue, where Donovan struck two parked cars. She was taken to DeGraff Memorial Hospital where she was evaluated and released back into police custody.

Her blood alcohol content, which according to police records was verified by blood, urine and breath tests, was measured at 0.13 percent. The legal limit in New York state is 0.08 percent. Police records state she drove her gray Saturn into two parked cars, deploying her airbags while headed north on Payne Avenue on her way home from a bar on Webster Street. Donovan allegedly told police she had consumed two mixed drinks.

The arrest was published in the July 13 edition of the Tonawanda News along with other police reports from that weekend, but no mention was made of her mother’s position as a councilwoman.

That likely would have remained the case were it not for the way the situation was resolved in North Tonawanda City Court on Thursday, which two different New York DWI authorities have called highly unusual.

Despite specific provisions in New York criminal law that make it almost unheard of for DWI arrests to result in non-alcohol related plea deals, Donovan took a plea deal Thursday to one speeding ticket for going 44 mph in a 30 mph zone and one parking ticket, both violations. According to court records, she paid a total of $280 in fines and was ordered to attend a DWI victim impact panel.

“I don’t think that’s right,” said state DMV Communications Director Kevin Brown, who was audibly taken aback when told by a News reporter of the crime and its punishment.

Donovan’s lawyer, former Niagara County Republican Committee Chairman Henry Wojtaszek, confirmed Friday that he contacted Niagara County District Attorney Michael Violante following her arraignment, asking for a reduction based on circumstances of the case he said justify the ruling. He would not say what those circumstances were.

He denied that his past political connections played a role in his ability to negotiate so successfully with Violante and that it was Sara Donovan who called him, not Alderwoman-at-Large Nancy Donovan, a member of the same Republican Party Wojtaszek once ran.

“I don’t believe I have spoken to her mother, in fact, I have not,” Wojtaszek said.

Brown, speaking for the DMV, offered that such reduced outcomes do sometimes occur — a fact echoed by City Attorney Shawn Nickerson and former Erie County Chief DWI prosecutor Leonard Krawczyk, both of whom maintain private legal practices. But on the rare occasion that they do, Krawczyk said prosecutors must decide that for any number of reasons the charge “isn’t warranted.” Those reasons might include police failing to follow protocol or inaccurate blood alcohol tests, Krawczyk suggested.

Otherwise, the state’s own DMV website clearly states “the law prohibits a plea to a non-alcohol or drug-related violation (when arrested for DWI).”

That is the result for most, if not all, of the roughly 200 people arrested for DWI by NT police each year. North Tonawanda Police Chief Randy Szukala confirmed a blood alcohol sensor was administered properly and was in good working order at the time of Donovan’s arrest.

However, Niagara County DWI prosecutor Ted Brenner signed a plea slip on Thursday authorizing the charges be reduced, which was granted on the same day by NT City Court Judge William Lewis.

The News reviewed the court documents for the case and found a hand-written note from Brenner authorizing the plea deal. The justifications, according to Brenner’s note, were the fact that Donovan has no past criminal record, that the significant damage she did to two parked cars was covered by insurance and, strangely, that her “blood alcohol content was 0.13.”

Neither Brenner nor Violante returned messages left for them Friday afternoon.

Their decision left Krawczyk scratching his head.

“I’ve been doing this for 22 years. I can’t recall even one (case) that I was involved in that that finding was made,” Krawczyk said. “It doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen but I can’t remember it happening, that’s how rare it is.”

During his time prosecuting DWIs, Krawczyk said his OK would have been needed for any plea deal.

“I had to authorize anything like that and we never did,” he said of the nine years he spent at the DWI bureau.

Szukala spoke openly about the police department’s role in the arrest, saying that officers handled the case in a routine manner. Szukala also said Sara Donovan, who is a friend of his own daughter, called him the morning after the arrest to express her remorse.

“Here’s a girl who was not asking for any favors whatsoever,” Szukala said. “I told her you know we’re not going to look down on you in any way. You made a mistake. You’re going to teach my daughter more by learning from your mistake. She was really sincere that she really screwed up and she was more concerned with my family’s perception of her, so she does have a perspective of how what she did affects other people.”

He acknowledged the potential threat that the incident posed to public safety and added that DWI is an offense he and his officers do not let slide. He said those who claim their relatives are police officers in an attempt to evade such charges are promptly told instead to call the relative to bail them out.

While clearly sympathetic to a young woman who Szukala said is normally well behaved and sincerely regretful, the police chief made clear the department’s role ends with an arrest.

“Once the case is out of my hands — my job was to take a drunk driver off the roads that night. If you have a good attorney ... then that’s not my problem. Once we take a drunk driver off the road, that’s our main concern.”

Messages left at the Donovan home and on Nancy Donovan’s cell phone were not returned Friday.

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