By Christina Hall
Detroit Free Press
WARREN, Ga. — A former Warren firefighter accused of being intoxicated when he struck and killed a 17-year-old Sterling Heights teenager will stand trial on second-degree murder.
Tad Dennis, 43, of Sterling Heights was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court today on charges of second-degree murder and operating while intoxicated causing death in the death of Diana Pozderca on Sept. 11, 2015.
Judge Kimberley Wiegand of 41A District Court in Sterling Heights today ruled that Dennis would be bound over on both charges after his attorney asked for the court not to bind over Dennis on the murder charge.
A preliminary exam was held in district court in May, with three prosecution witnesses testifying. No witnesses testified for the defense. Wiegand gave attorneys time to file briefs in the case, specifically related to the second-degree murder charge, and set a hearing for today.
Wiegand read her ruling, saying malice was an issue of fact, and bound over the case on both charges. She said Dennis’ blood-alcohol level was 0.14, his speed was 79 m.p.h. to 81 m.p.h on a 35 m.p.h. road, and he was within one mile of home when the crash occurred.
Assistant Prosecutor William Cataldo and Dennis’ attorney Stephen Rabaut declined comment after the hearing, which was attended by Dennis and more than a dozen of his supporters. Pozderca’s family was not in the courtroom. Rabaut said he likely will file a motion to quash or dismiss the second-degree murder charge at Circuit Court, where arraignment is set for Aug. 22.
Prosecutor Eric Smith previously said the murder charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison. The other charge is a 15-year felony.
Dennis, who was off-duty, was driving on Plumbrook, a residential street, when his SUV struck Pozderca’s car head-on, Timothy Brown — a private consultant for crash reconstruction and analysis and a retired Michigan State Police trooper -- testified at the preliminary exam.
“If it’s anything, it could be higher,” Brown testified about Dennis’ speed. He said Pozderca was driving 31 m.p.h. in the 35 m.p.h. zone.
Dennis had a blood-alcohol level of 0.149, Cataldo told the court during the exam. The legal limit for an adult driver in Michigan is 0.08.
Dennis was terminated from the Warren Fire Department after the criminal charges were filed late last year.
Brown testified at the preliminary exam that he believes Dennis’ SUV drove over the top of Pozderca’s car, pushing it into the pavement, leaving a gouge that he saw when he examined the scene two months after the crash.
The force of the collision pushed the teen’s car back 75 feet, Sterling Heights Police reported at the time of the crash. Cataldo previously told the court that an autopsy indicated that Pozderca died of multiple blunt traumatic injuries.
Brown testified that he found no evidence of either driver braking, but agreed with Rabaut during cross-examination that that doesn’t mean either driver didn’t try to brake. Brown said Pozderca’s car was in its lane at the time of the impact.
Sterling Heights Police Detective Brian Krueger had testified that both drivers had to be extricated from their vehicles and that no usable data came from the black boxes in either vehicle.
Dennis was seriously injured in the accident and continues to walk with a cane.
A lawsuit filed earlier this year stated that Dennis downed at least 10 drinks at a daylong golf outing that day, then was served 88 ounces of beer at a Clinton Township restaurant before he stumbled outside and got back behind the wheel of his SUV.
Fourteen minutes later, the wrongful death lawsuit stated, his SUV plowed head-on into Pozderca’s car. She died less than an hour later.
The lawsuit stated Dennis had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21%. It also said Dennis was one of 84 golfers who participated in the Sept. 11 outing benefiting the Warren Firefighter Fund at a Sterling Heights golf club.
Pozderca told witness Dylan Stallard, a licensed EMT and ordained deacon conducting a business meeting at a nearby church when he heard the collision’s loud boom: “Help me. Help me. He hit me. Help me,” Stallard previously testified.
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