NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

Plea Deal Reached in Fatal Accident
February 7, 2007

A Jefferson County woman accused of passing a stopped school bus and killing a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday after agreeing to a plea to settle the case.

Shannon Dopson, 39, pleaded no contest to negligent homicide, failure to stop after an accident resulting in injury or death, driving while intoxicated and first-degree assault stemming from an accident on January 11 that resulted in the death of Elizabeth Cimprich, 14, a student at Watson Chapel Junior High School.

Dopson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for negligent homicide and six years for leaving the scene of an accident, with the sentences to run consecutively.

“On the negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death, she pled to the maximum she could have gotten if she had gone to trial and been convicted,” said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Hunter.

Dopson was sentenced to one year in prison each for DWI and first-degree assault, and an additional 10 years for first-degree criminal mischief that resulted from a separate incident in 2005. Those sentences will run concurrently with the other sentence.

Dopson could be eligible to apply for parole in just over two and one-half years.

Hunter said Dopson’s blood alcohol level was .27 percent, almost four times the legal limit of .08 percent.

While in prison, Dopson will be required to complete a long-term substance abuse program, was fined $150 plus court costs of $200, and had her driver’s license suspended for 120 days because of the DWI conviction.

Hunter said Cimprich was struck by Dopson’s vehicle after the child got off a school bus on U.S. 79 South near Sorrells Road at about 4:10 p.m. Jan. 11.

“The lights on the bus were flashing and the bar worked when the bus stopped to let Elizabeth and her brother Matthew off the bus,” Hunter said.

He said Dopson was northbound on the highway and, “didn’t slow down or stop and dragged Elizabeth 100 yards before stopping briefly, then driving away without stopping to give aid or information as required by law.

“Her vehicle came just a few feet from hitting Matthew before driving away,” Hunter said in explaining the assault charge.

State police and sheriff’s deputies who were responding to the reported accident saw the vehicle Dopson was driving and arrested the woman after she pulled into the driveway of her home, more than a mile from the accident scene.

In the other incident, Dopson had “purposely ran her vehicle into another vehicle belonging to Donald Clements, causing more than $500 in damage.”

Before accepting the plea and imposing sentence, Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis allowed Cimprich’s mother, Karen Lilly, to address the court and Dopson.

Frequently breaking into tears on the stand, Lilly described how she felt when her daughter was killed.

“What was before me was the most horrifying nightmare to unfold in front of my eyes,” she said. “A scene which every mother fears from the moment they hear their unborn baby’s heartbeat within their womb. In a blink of an eye, Jan. 11, 2007, 4:09 p.m., my Elizabeth Elaine was dead.”

After talking about her daughter’s plans to become a nurse and “help others in their time of pain,” and the closeness of the family, Lilly turned toward Dopson who was sitting in the jury box.

“There is a desire to make Shannon Dopson feel the helplessness, the hopelessness, the forever emptiness that only my son and I share,” Lilly said. “I wish she could have known Elizabeth the way I knew and loved her so she could somewhat embrace who she was, what she could have been, what she wanted to be.

“Maybe one day I will learn the truth of what happened that day,” Lilly said. “Why she chose to drive drunk? Why she could not see a huge flashing school bus and two beautiful children in the road so plainly in front of her? Why she never tried to brake for them and why she ran from the sight of me holding my daughter’s lifeless body? Maybe he can’t even answer those questions now but I pray she will have the time to.”

Dopson, also weeping, spoke only briefly, saying there were “no words to express how sorry I am for the loss.”

El Dorado attorney Jack Barker, who described himself as a long-time friend of Dopson’s family and who represented the woman, said the family was “praying for closure on both sides of this horrible tragedy.”

Ray King

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