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While a criminal case remains pending, the widow of a man killed in an Oct. 22, 1997, auto accident has filed a lawsuit alleging his wrongful death.
Virgil Helman died at the scene of the 3 a.m. accident that day on Ind. 13, south of CR 1120N, after Helman's pickup was struck by a pickup driven by Edward Chivington.
Chivington was indicted by a grand jury Dec. 4, 1997, and charged with driving while intoxicated causing a death. A trial set for October was continued and Kosciusko Superior Court III Judge Joe Sutton has since recused himself from hearing the case. The matter is currently before an appellate court awaiting a ruling on a "speedy trial" issue. Defense attorney John Grimm of Auburn moved for dismissal of the case after the continuance was granted because more than a year has past since charges were brought against Chivington.
Chivington, whose blood-alcohol level was reportedly .18 percent following the accident, is named as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Atta Helman, administrator of the estate of Virgil Helman. Also named as a defendant is R.C.'s Pier, a Syracuse establishment at which Chivington was consuming alcoholic beverages prior to the accident.
According to the lawsuit, filed Friday by Daniel Sigler of Bloom, Gates & Whiteleather of Columbia City, Chivington had been a customer at R.C.'s Pier and "consumed alcoholic beverages to the point of intoxication and beyond" and that the employees of R.C.'s Pier "negligently served alcohol to Defendant Chivington ... knowing that he would be driving upon leaving said bar."
Although Chivington's attorney does not discount the fact that his client was driving after drinking alcoholic beverages, Grimm recently told an area publication that "Helman made an 'illegal left-hand turn' directly in front of Chivington's vehicle and that Chivington, who was going highway speed, could not have avoided the collision whether he was 'drunk as a hoot owl or sober as a preacher.'"
An unspecified amount of compensation is being sought through the civil case. A trial by jury is requested.
