NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — It took a Montgomery County jury about seven hours to find a Conshohocken woman who struck and killed a man after her windshield fogged over not guilty of homicide by vehicle.
"The jury recognized that criminalizing a normal citizen for human error does not foster a better society for any of us," said defense attorney Stephen Geday. "My heart goes out to his family, but avenging that loss by trying to criminalize another isn't I think the society that any of us feel is either compassionate or just."
That jury found 33-year-old Leah Cielo not guilty of homicide by vehicle and reckless endangerment for the Jan. 31, 2018, crash that killed 80-year-old Bruce Collins as he crossed Fayette Street at 4th Street in Conshohocken.
Geday says Cielo fully cooperated with investigators, including giving a full statement to detectives.
"However, what then happened was they took her words, they twisted some of them, they omitted some of them, and they essentially assumed things that they had to admit was wild speculation, and they used that as the basis for this prosecution," he said.
Cielo told police she'd just left for work when she tried to get some water marks off her windshield. But the washer fluid fogged her windshield, and the defogger made it worse. She said, while she saw the man walking with Collins, she didn't see Collins until right before she hit him.
"It's a mixed bag of emotions for her. She's devastated about the situation, about what happened," Geday said. "She's obviously very relieved about the verdict."
She hopes now she can piece her life back together, he added, but her thoughts remain with Collins' family.
