By Carmen Ensinger
David Clark, 53, of Roodhouse, was sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections in Greene County Circuit Court on Oct. 22 after entering an Open Plea of guilty to a charge of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving a Death.
The charge stems from the Nov. 9 accident that resulted in the death of 71-year-old Judy Menge of rural Roodhouse.
Clark was originally charged with four counts: Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving a Death, a Class 1 Felony; Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Personal Injury, Class 2 Felony; Driving While License Suspended, Class 4 Felony and Failure to Reduce Speed to Avoid an Accident, Petty Offense. The other three charges were dropped per the plea agreement.
Those charges were later amended to: Leaving the Scene involving a Death, Driving on a Revoked/Suspended DUI/SSS 3rd, Failure to Reduce Speed and Aggravated DUI Resulting in a Crash or Death.
Judy Menge died as a result of injuries suffered on Nov. 9 when she stopped at her mailbox to get her mail at around 6:30 p.m. Menge had stopped her truck on the wrong side of the road to retrieve her mail from the mailbox.
It was dark at the time and Clark, seeing the lights from Menge’s truck, thought the truck was moving and in his lane coming towards him. He swerved to the side of the road to take the ditch and in doing so hit Menge’s truck, allegedly pinning her against her mailbox.
Clark went across the street to a neighbor’s house and had them call 911 and sometime during this time another vehicle came along and also struck Menge, allegedly killing her.
In addition to the 12-year sentence, he was also sentenced to two years Mandatory Supervised Release and given credit for 348 days served in the Greene County Jail and assessed a $2,000 fine.
In Illinois, the sentence for a Class 1 felony is 4 to 15 years, so Greene County Judge Zachary Schmidt gave Clark the high end of the possible sentence.