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Driver pleads guilty in crash
The man who sent Tillie Tooter's car over a highway railing will be sentenced today.
©Associated Press
February 27, 2002
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A driver pleaded guilty Tuesday to knocking an 83-year-old woman's car over a highway railing and into a swamp, where she was trapped for three days until a road worker spotted her by chance.
Scott Campbell, 23, will be sentenced today under a plea bargain to five years' probation, plus restitution for medical expenses.
The sentencing was delayed to allow Tillie Tooter, now 84, to come to court and hear him apologize.
The plea was announced after jury selection began for Campbell's trial. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident and a misdemeanor count of making a false police report. The charges carry a maximum six-year prison sentence.
Prosecutor Gregg Rossman said the apology was most important to Tooter, who now uses a walker and who suffered kidney damage and has chronic pain from her injuries.
"She's a tough lady, but she has been gracious from the start," he said. "She wanted somebody to plead guilty and apologize."
Tooter was in Philadelphia when told of the plea bargain and flew back Tuesday to attend Campbell's sentencing.
"It's a pity that so young a person has to have a mark like this on his record," Tooter told WPLG-TV. "What he did to me I'm paying for for the rest of my life. . . . I hope he learns a lesson. I hope he learns to be a human being."
Yale Galanter, Campbell's lawyer, said this is the first time his client has been in trouble with the law.
In August 2000, Tooter was trapped in her crumpled car beneath a bridge on Interstate 595 southwest of Fort Lauderdale. She had been heading to the airport at 3:15 a.m. to pick up a granddaughter when Campbell hit her.
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