Background: The intersection of East Ramsey and South Swift avenues in Cudahy, Wisconsin, where the victim was hit (WTMJ/YouTube). Inset: Darlene Adam (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office).
An 89-year-old woman in Wisconsin is accused of crashing into a 9-year-old girl who was on her way to school and then driving away.
Darlene Adam stands charged with hit-and-run causing injury, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime.
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It was before 8 a.m. on Oct. 28, a Tuesday, and Lenci Lambert was on her way to school, as local NBC affiliate WTMJ reported. At a crosswalk at the intersection of East Ramsey and South Swift avenues in Cudahy, a Milwaukee suburb, a crossing guard raised his stop sign.
As the crossing guard stood in the crosswalk wearing a "high-visibility vest," Lenci began to cross the street. But a silver sedan was approaching "without slowing down," and the vehicle struck Lenci and then drove away without stopping, per the criminal complaint.
Police officers arrived on the scene and saw Lenci "lying in the street surrounded by bystanders." They spoke with the crossing guard and then searched for surveillance footage of the crash. They were in luck: a nearby hospital had footage of a silver Ford Focus in the parking lot.
The sedan had "fresh damage to the front passenger side, a cracked windshield, and an apparent handprint on the glass." An investigator found Adam and asked her if she remembered "anything happening earlier." She did, in fact — saying she "believed a rock had hit her vehicle or that she had run into a construction barrel."
Adam did not check her vehicle for damage until she got to the hospital, where she recognized damage that was not previously there, according to the complaint. The suspect added that she did not know how fast she was going and she did not remember seeing a crossing guard in the intersection.
Investigators spoke with another witness, who said they observed "a cup and a shoe fly up in the air" and then a sedan driving away. An additional witness said the car "did not brake" before hitting the girl.
Lenci, who has since turned 10, was brought to a children's hospital. Law enforcement officers met with her as part of their investigation, finding her with "bandages on her arms and legs" and "abrasions and bruising" to her left cheek, left eye, and forehead.
If Adam is convicted of the crime, she could be placed in jail for up to nine months and fined up to $10,000. She is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 18, per WTMJ.
Adam told Milwaukee's ABC affiliate WISN that it was an accident and she never saw the girl.
"I'm giving up my license," she added.
