Community Corner

Trial Set In Fatal DUI Crash; New Judge Granted

March 16 set in Janet Esrock manslaughter.

A March 16 court trial was set Friday for Chesterfield resident Patrick McCormick, who is charged with DUI manslaughter and assault in the August 26 car crash on Wild Horse Creek Road that killed Chesterfield teacher Janet Esrock and seriously injured her teenage son.

A motion in St. Louis County Circuit Court for a change of judges was granted to McCormick, and the case assigned to Thomas J. Prebil in Division 4.

Prebil has been a judge for 2.5 years, with expertise in civil trial cases and federal employers' liability cases, according to the circuit court website.

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Prebil earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Saint Louis University.

McCormick, 54, is director of facilities at Saint Louis University Hospital.

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He pleaded not guilty to:

  • 1st-degree involuntary manslaughter with a vehicle, intoxication, causing death of a non-passenger, and
  • 2nd-degree assault, operating a vehicle intoxicated causing injury.

McCormick's lawyer Friday would not comment on why he filed the motion to change judges. The previous assignment was Judge Maura McShane—the presiding judge of the courts.

McShane has been a circuit court judge since 1994 and assistant prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County for 10 years prior.

Esrock, 50, and her 16-year-old son Jonathan were nearing home on Wild Horse Creek Road on a Friday night, when McCormick's Chevy Tahoe crossed the center line into oncoming traffic, and crashed into Esrock's sedan.

The Whitfield School teacher never regained consciousness and died two weeks later at Mercy Medical Center. Her son was seriously injured, but survived, and eventually returned to school with surgery and physical therapy.

She is survived by her husband and three children.

 


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