A Shelton woman charged with causing a fatal River Road crash had cocaine and morphine in her system and had just hung up her cell phone when she drifted into oncoming traffic and hit another car head-on, according to an arrest warrant.
The crash killed 69-year-old Rosemarie Dwyer, a popular business owner and medical professional, who had been driving south on River Road May 6 when she was hit by 23-year-old Samantha Monaco.
Monaco is due at Superior Court in Derby Thursday (Aug. 25) to face charges of second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, using a hand-held cell phone while operating a motor vehicle, and failure to drive right.
Pending Cases
It won’t be her first trip to court.
Records show she has three traffic tickets dating back to 2014 which have been continued in court more than 20 times apiece, as well as arrests for burglary, larceny, and interfering with police.
Six months before the deadly River Road crash — Shelton cops charged her with running a stop sign and leading police on a chase.
The Valley Indy left a message with Monaco’s lawyer Tuesday.
Crash Investigation
According to an arrest warrant written by Shelton Police Detective Richard Bango, most of the officers responding to the May 6 crash in front of the Sports Center of Connecticut at 784 River Road “knew Monaco from several prior police encounters.”
While police were still at the scene of the crash, a witness told them he had just been down the street at the deli where Monaco was working that day, where she appeared “jittery and anxious” while cashing him out at the register.
When police went to the hospital to ask Monaco what had happened, she allegedly said, “I don’t want to talk to you.”
At the time, Monaco spoke slowly and appeared “lethargic,” the warrant says. “It also appeared that she did not understand what was being asked of her.”
Police discovered that Monaco had a prescription for Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction.
Detectives then got a search warrant for Monaco’s medical records, which showed she had cocaine and morphine in her system at the time of the crash.
Cell phone records also showed Monaco had been using her phone seconds before the accident, according to the warrant.
Police tracked down the number she had called, and a man told them he had spoken with Monaco for about a minute and a half before saying goodbye and hanging up.
The man “theorized that she was hanging up the phone just as she was involved in the accident.”
Preferential Treatment?
After police announced her arrest this month, some Valley Indy readers posted comments asking whether Monaco had been given preferential treatment by cops.
Some said Monaco’s father does repair work on police vehicles, wondering whether that had had any influence on the bond set on the warrant — $25,000, which Monaco posted soon after her Aug. 11 arrest.
Richard Bango, the detective who investigated the crash, said Tuesday that’s not so.
He pointed out that bonds on warrants are set by the judges who sign them, not police.
Monaco’s father does own a business that is on a list of tow-truck companies police call to remove vehicles after car crashes, Bango said.
But that doesn’t mean members of their families get breaks.
Any garage owner in the city can get onto the list if their business is in order, he said.
“He only gets called when it’s his turn,” Bango said. “She absolutely didn’t get any preferential treatment because her father is in a towing rotation.”
