(line ringing)
Officer: 911.
Caller: There's been an accident on bates-amasa road.
Officer: How bad? Caller: Pretty bad.
(siren blaring)
(caller speaking)
Karl numinen: He just ploughed right into them.
He immediately said, "I fell asleep,
"and only woke up after the collision happened."
The question then is, what caused that to happen?
Jerry mittelstadt: To have people that I don't know decide what my future's going to be
Is a scary thing.
What's at stake is basically the rest of my life.
I don't wish this on anybody.
Numinen: I'm karl numinen. I'm a criminal defense attorney.
In this case, I represent jerry mittelstadt.
Jerry is charged with the crime of driving carelessly,
Causing the death of another person.
It's a very serious felony,
Punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The allegation is that back in January of 2021,
Jerry was driving his vehicle on the way to work,
Broad daylight, about 2:00 in the afternoon.
And as he approached a construction area
Where the workers were cutting trees and shrubbery on the side of the highway,
He just ploughed right into them,
And killed the front guy. The flagger.
Immediately after the accident, when the police came on the scene,
They asked jerry right there, right then, what happened?
And he immediately, spontaneously, said, "I fell asleep."
He didn't have an explanation for why he fell asleep,
How he fell asleep or what happened.
But he said, "I fell asleep,
"and only woke up after the collision happened."
He's never fallen asleep before driving or at work, anything like that.
There's no obvious reason why he would have fallen asleep.
He certainly wasn't intoxicated by alcohol or any kind of drugs.
He's not on any prescriptions.
When I first took on this case, I wasn't really sure
How we were going to defend the case.
At first, it seems indefensible.
Clearly, jerry was driving the car that hit and killed the deceased.
Clearly.
The question then is what caused that to happen?
If there is a reason as to why he lost consciousness,
Then we may have a defense.
Mittelstadt: I live in the upper peninsula, in newald, wisconsin.
Out in the middle of a beautiful area.
I had 10 years in the united states air force.
And then, as I got older, went into electrical maintenance.
So that's what I'm doing now.
Jen and I moved here back in 2010,
Wanted to get out of town.
Her boys have moved out, and it's just her,
Us and our two dogs right now.
The whole indictment, it was devastating.
What's at stake is basically the rest of my life.
That's it.
What do we do?
We lose everything.
My income is the only income right now.
I don't know that jen will be able to hold on to the house.
We've been together for 14 years.
I met him eight years prior to that.
So we've known each other 22 years.
I wasn't looking for a relationship,
But he's a nice guy.
And then one day, snow storms.
I don't like driving in snow storms.
I called him and asked if he would give me a ride to work in the morning.
So he came over and spent the night
And it went on from there. That was it. (chuckles)
We've been together since.
It's his personality, his kindness, he's gentle.
He's wonderful. He really is.
I don't have a bad thing to say about him, seriously.
And I don't know that you would find anybody that does.
He doesn't really talk a lot.
I think he keeps his feelings to himself.
I know he thinks about this every single day.
I don't know, he's not the same.
He's definitely not the same.
Mittelstadt: Every single night when I lay down,
The whole accident replays.
And try to think what I did...
If I did something wrong...
I can't think of a single thing
That I could have done different.
-Mittelstadt: Hey, karl. -Hi.
Come on in.
So the document that I was given by the court
Sets out what you're charged with.
This says that on January 13th, 2021,
You were driving in iron county, and you approached a work zone.
Just walk me through a little bit.
I remember coming down in highway 2,
And making the turn onto bates-amasa.
I hadn't gotten very far.
The last thing that I can remember
-Is seeing the jehovah witness building on the left. -Yeah.
When I got to that point of the road, I set my cruise control.
Numinen: And what did you set the cruise control at?
Usually I just run up between 50-55 and then set it.
Numinen: What happened?
I don't know.
It's inconceivable that I fell asleep,
But yet, I have no, no memory
Of that portion, of the rest of that drive.
Numinen: What's the next conscious memory you've got?
Mittelstadt: I couldn't see anything.
All I saw was like a white... Dirty, white color.
Somebody had suggested it was probably the airbag
That was over my head.
Gotcha.
And then I lifted my hand,
And I hit the steering wheel in the truck.
And then I realized, I remembered I was in my truck.
I realized I couldn't breathe.
So I slammed the door open, and fell out on the road
On my hands and knees trying to get a breath.
And that's when I saw that I had been in an accident.
The next thing I heard was
There was a guy coming up the road
Asking me if I knew where larry was.
And I remember asking if he had found him,
And he said, "yes, he's right there,"
And he pointed between the trucks.
Numinen: Describe what you saw.
(exhales sharply)
I saw the lower, lower part of one of his legs laying in the road.
-Separated from the body? -Yes.
Numinen: What happened when the trooper got there?
He took me off to the side and asked me what happened.
I told him I must have fallen asleep.
I had no... No other idea.
I had no idea what happened.
Did you feel tired?
No. So I can't figure out what happened. (chuckles nervously)
At any point while you're driving,
Did you unroll your windows or put your windows down at all?
Okay. Did you do anything to perk yourself up?
No.
-Hit yourself, anything like that? -No.
Numinen: You and I are going to have to show the jury you were not careless.
We're going to have to show
That there was a reason you lost consciousness
Before you ever got to that site.
Does all that make sense?
All right.
Mittelstadt: Thank you, karl.
Yeah. We'll see you soon.
Every night I see his face.
Every night I see his leg.
Those are the two that stand out.
I don't... I don't wish this on anybody.
Some of them are fairly grisly because obviously they show the deceased
And they show the causality of this accident.
The impact area must be in this general area.
You can see the debris
And it pushed that truck
Several yards forward after the impact.
And I think the police took these photos to show the absolute absence
Of any kind of skid mark leading up to that impact.
I suppose the prosecutor is going to take this
And show the jury that there was no swerving, slowing or stopping,
No skid marks by jerry.
But uniquely, that also shows that he was not conscious
As he was approaching this construction area,
Or he obviously would have, even at the last minute,
Slammed on the brakes. He said he fell asleep.
But he doesn't recall feeling tired or drowsy.
My theory is that jerry wasn't asleep,
But that he fell unconscious for some other reason.
Does he have a medical condition?
These are things that we're going to have to find out
Because these are going to be critical to show
That there was no intent here of careless driving.
Mittelstadt: It's a very nice day
Just to get out and spend the day with the family,
And see the kids,
Just watch them have fun out on the lake.
(indistinct conversation)
Mittelstadt: We would never have made it through this ordeal
Without the support and help of our family.
(indistinct chatter)
Woman: Bubba?
Mittelstadt: Constantly helping out, sharing, listening,
Consoling at times.
Financially, doing what they could to help us.
You can't go through something like this by yourselves
And keep your sanity, I guess.
Without you guys, we wouldn't have made it.
It's been ridiculously hard.
I'm... We're stressed to the max...
But I can't say thank you enough to you guys
For how you helped us out.
Levi geneman: Having the court case hanging over the family
Kinda pushes us to have days like this
Just to try to distract everybody.
It's not easy.
I go to work, that's what I think about, the closer it gets.
He talks to me about things that he doesn't talk to other people about.
This is haunting, not knowing what's going to happen.
Mittelstadt: Here we go.
(child speaks indistinctly)
I don't know if I'm going to have my dad or not.
(water sloshing)
Numinen: So this is the state trooper's dash cam.
So he's got a body mic on, and the camera's in the dash of the vehicle.
(trooper speaking)
(mittelstadt and trooper speaking)
Numinen: That's jerry he's talking to, I believe.
(trooper speaking)
Numinen: He puts him on the bumper
So that he can keep him in the visual of the dash cam.
What I want to hear is the very first thing he says to jerry.
(trooper speaking)
(mittelstadt speaking)
(trooper speaking)
(mittelstadt speaking)
(trooper speaking)
The very first thing he says was, "I fell asleep.
"I didn't know anything until the impact."
He said I fell asleep, and he said I had to have fallen asleep.
Numinen: Exactly!
Sleep was his only explanation at the time,
But it's not necessarily what happened.
(trooper speaking)
I guess my biggest worry is that the jury is just not going to understand
That someone could fall asleep like that.
Numinen: So we have to demonstrate that he wasn't asleep.
Not in the way we nap or sleep at night.
But that jerry lost consciousness at the wheel,
Through no fault of his own.
If a person's unconscious while they're driving,
They can't be held responsible for the criminal act.
And I'll give you the analogy.
It would be just like if he was driving
And suffered a stroke or a heart attack.
Any one of those types of medical emergencies
Would be an excuse to the driving.
Jen: Hello, karl. Numinen: Come on in. Come on in.
We've got to dig down and find out the reason
Why you lost consciousness prior to hitting that truck.
In the first week of December 2020,
I was at work, and when I slid under the machine on my stomach,
I could not breathe.
I got under the machine and I could not take a breath.
Okay.
Had this ever happened to you before?
Mittelstadt: No.
Were you literally feeling like you were suffocating?
Oh, yeah. Lack of air completely.
And the next day we got an appointment going,
And I let my boss know that something was wrong.
So, this is the first week of December 2020.
Mittelstadt: Yes.
Numinen: And that was before the accident.
Mittelstadt: Before the accident, yes.
Mittelstadt: She examined me,
And they gave me a breath treatment, they call it,
And then she listened to my lungs again,
And came back with a referral
To see the pulmonary specialist in marquette.
When did you finally get to see the pulmonary specialist?
March 1st, 2021.
Numinen: After the accident.
Mittelstadt: Yes.
Numinen: Okay. Tell me how that went.
He listened to my lungs and he said
That my right lung didn't seem to be working,
But the test results showed
That my left lung was not functioning near up to par, either.
So I'm clear. The problem with your lung
Pre-existed the accident in January 2021.
Correct.
Okay. And the medical specialist confirmed that.
Mittelstadt: Correct. Numinen: Okay.
All right. That was extraordinarily helpful to me
To understand this sequence of events.
We're going to line up the medical records
To support exactly what you're saying.
If we can show the jury that you lost consciousness,
Then you weren't driving carelessly.
And in that event, you're simply not guilty of a crime.
Does that make sense?
-Yes. -Yes, it does.
-Numinen: All right. -Makes us feel better, too.
Numinen: Good.
I've read every word of every report.
Literally what are hundreds of pages of medical records,
And they say what I think that they need to say.
So prior to the accident, jerry went through a series of tests
To eliminate certain problems.
The mri, the cat scan turned out to be normal.
However, one thing that was not normal was the lung issue.
Remember, this is in December 2020.
Covid is still rampant
And he can't get the next appointment,
Because the doctors aren't taking any.
So we can assume he was unaware that he had a medical condition
And it got progressively worse leading up to this accident.
And one of the things that we found,
The pulmonary function, that's the lung functioning...
He's operating at less than 30%
Of what is expected of his capacity.
You're simply not processing the air that you breathe
Into oxygen into your blood,
Which means it's not getting into your brain.
And if your brain's not getting oxygen, it shuts down.
-(berger speaks over phone) -hey, alex.
I just got off the phone with an emergency room doctor
To consult on this issue of the lack of consciousness.
Can I tell you about it?
Numinen: This doctor was really good.
He's talking about diaphragmatic paralysis,
And he got right into
Whether or not that he had a sleep study.
I explained that he did have the sleep study,
And his saturation level went down to 77%.
So that's excellent to hear,
Because that's very consistent then with his medical record.
Berger: Yeah. Okay, appreciate it.
-Numinen: Cool. All right, cheers. -Bye.
(indistinct conversation)
Jen: These are all the bills that are coming up.
That's his hospital bill, loans, our heating bill.
The money we borrowed for lawyer's fees.
So there's quite a bit we are so behind.
He is carrying such a burden.
More burden than I am, really.
This is a whole different...
It's a life-changing moment in every aspect.
Mittelstadt: You could very easily lay all the blame right on me.
It's not your fault.
You can't help your health conditions.
I have spent many nights breaking down
That he don't know about.
I mean, even... Even losing everything, I don't care,
As long as he's here, you know?
On September 20th, 2006,
Jerry was convicted of the offense of operating while intoxicated
In the state of wisconsin.
And then on June 19th, 2001,
He was convicted of the offense of operating while intoxicated,
Also in the state of wisconsin.
So these are a very long time ago.
Unfortunately, they can use that to enhance the maximum sentence
Of the crime in this case.
So, what jerry is charged with is ordinarily punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
It's now punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Jerry's 59 years old now.
That's a life... That's a life sentence for him.
Unfortunately, when I got back from the first gulf war,
I didn't do so well, and I racked up a few duis.
I messed up.
I was angry when I got out of the military.
I didn't want to get out.
President bush had his force reduction
And I was caught in the downsizing.
I feel that I was punished for the driving offences back then.
I didn't hurt anybody, thank god.
I don't feel like right now that that should be a part of this case.
Seventeen years later, without any infractions, no speeding tickets, no nothing,
Now we go from a 15-year max to a 30-year maximum.
And it completely floored me.
Toxicology reports show that there's no alcohol,
No drugs, no prescription drugs, nothing in my system
At the time of the crash.
Were that to happen, that's a pretty much a death sentence for me
Because I... Thirty years, I would never get out.
We're just ruined here.
I mean, the trial's coming.
Stress is out the roof.
To have people that I don't know
Decide what my future's gonna be...
...Is a scary thing.
(bell tolling)
Mittelstadt: Very anxious.
Everything that we've gone through for the last
Almost two years is coming to a boil today.
Obviously, I lean on jen so hard.
Her support has been unshaking, unwavering.
And I don't know what I'd do without her. I love her to death.
I can't imagine being separated from her at all.
(judge speaking)
I'd like to start by thanking you all for your time and service.
We are here today because the defendant, jerry mittelstadt,
Drove recklessly in a work zone and caused the death
Of the victim, lawrence leonarduzzi.
The defendant did commit the moving violation by driving carelessly.
Carelessly means operating a motor vehicle in a careless or negligent manner,
Likely to endanger any person or property.
The defendant told the trooper that he fell asleep while driving
And that he woke up when he crashed into the victim.
The victim passed away due to massive traumatic injuries
That he sustained as a result of the defendant crashing in to him.
Nobody consciously drives their vehicle, their full-size pickup truck,
55 miles an hour into the back end of somebody else's pickup truck,
Unless they're on a suicide mission.
So your first question that we're gonna answer together during this trial is,
Was jerry conscious?
And number two, if he was unconscious,
Did he have any reason to believe, should he have known
That he shouldn't be driving?
As you were driving north on bates-amasa road from u.S. 2,
Do you recall seeing the work zone?
Michael serbinski: Yes. I saw the strobe lights from the county vehicles right away.
I looked in the rear-view mirror
And saw the pickup behind me and continued,
And I just noticed that it was coming really fast.
Thinking, what does he think he's going to do?
Is he gonna pass me?
And that's when I heard the impact
And then all kinds of debris were falling onto our vehicle.
The impact was just horrendous.
Derouin: Okay. All right, michael. That's all I have at this time, your honor.
Numinen: Your testimony just a minute ago
Was that the vehicle you saw in your rear-view mirror
Was approaching really fast. Right?
Serbinski: It seemed fast, yes.
Okay. At no point did you see that vehicle slow down?
Serbinski: That's correct.
And you didn't see any swerving, correct?
Yeah, I did not.
So no evidence of any conscious effort on the part of that truck
To avoid that collision? Correct?
Serbinski: That would be my observation.
Numinen: I have no further questions, your honor.
Numinen: Thank you.
Mittelstadt: It's like 10 times the amount of stress now.
I'm trying to see how they are perceiving me
Through what's going on in the court room.
I don't really have a good feel on 'em yet.
You wanna kinda, I guess, engage the jury
To know that you're not a monster, you know?
Derouin: And based on the information that you had,
Your observation, your training and experience,
Were you able to come to a conclusion as to how this crash happened?
Yes. All the available evidence to me
Just pointed to the driver of the ranger
Not realizing what was in front of them,
And wasn't able to react to that
And stop before hitting the dodge and the pedestrian,
The road commission worker.
Derouin: Thank you, sergeant. That's all I have at this time, your honor.
Numinen: People's exhibit number seven
Shows this long stretch of straightaway leading up to the crash scene?
Yes.
Would you agree with me that if a fella was driving in their pickup truck
With the cruise control on at 55 miles an hour,
Driving down this straightaway, and that person lost consciousness,
That person could go a long way down that straightaway without coming off the road.
Verlin: A fair assessment.
And they wouldn't show any skid marks, would it?
Verlin: No, not necessarily.
Numinen: Your conclusion was the driver was not realizing what was in front of him.
A person who's lost consciousness would also not realize
-What's in front of him. Correct? -Verlin: Correct.
So losing consciousness is also, again, consistent with your conclusions, right?
Verlin: That would be consistent.
Numinen: I have no further questions, your honor.
Mr. Duprose, can you escort the jury out? All rise.
So let's talk a little bit about what we just went through.
Have a seat.
You've got the prosecutor's accident reconstruction guy.
When he comes in and he says to the jury
That everything that he sees is perfectly consistent with you driving your truck,
Putting it on cruise control at 55,
Losing consciousness and going straight into that truck,
That's beautiful.
That's brilliant.
That never happens.
All right. Same admonishments. Go home.
Don't talk to anybody.
Don't do anything stupid. Come back tomorrow in a white shirt.
-Mittelstadt: All right. -All right.
-Awesome today. Awesome. -Thanks.
Numinen: So we've heard from all the eyewitnesses, the people on the scene.
We've heard from the police witnesses,
Including the officer in charge and the reconstruction experts.
And now we're moving into the final field of the medical experts.
Derouin: Did the defendant make any statements to you while he was there
Regarding falling asleep?
The patient stated that they fell asleep while driving.
Derouin: You did a physical exam.
You ordered labs, you ordered imaging.
You were unable to diagnose the defendant with any lung issues? Correct?
And in fact, his oxygen saturation level was well within normal range.
Correct.
As well as you weren't able to diagnose him with any condition that would cause
An immediate loss of consciousness. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Okay. Thank you, doctor. That's all I have at this time, your honor.
Well, doctor, if a patient has a loss of consciousness,
Sometimes they don't know what caused that loss of consciousness. Right?
Dr. Naylor: That's true. Yeah.
A person who's been in a high speed, heavy impact collision
And is just, just coming to from that
And is asked by a police officer what happened?
You say, "I must have fallen asleep."
Here's my question.
That person may be trying to guess at what caused the loss of consciousness, right?
Dr. Naylor: That's theoretically possible, yes.
Numinen: I have no further questions, your honor.
Numinen: Now we're moving into the defense medical providers.
What we need to do now is explore what would be the cause
Of him losing consciousness in the moments before the collision.
And I've got to be able to show the jury
Jerry had no reason to believe that he was gonna have a loss of consciousness
Leading up to that collision.
Whether we call that a fainting spell, whether we call that a seizure.
The key is, did he have any reason to know
That he was going to lose consciousness?
Numinen: Thank you, your honor.
I'll call jacilyn meinol.
Tell the jury what you do for a living.
I am a family nurse practitioner and I work in sleep medicine.
Meinol: Part of his diaphragm that helps him to breathe
Is paralyzed, not working, functioning properly.
It's measured as a percentage where we're seeing how many of the blood cells
Are adequately oxygenated at night.
So in one night, jerry went from 77 to over 90?
-Yes. -And back and down?
Yes.
-Fluctuating almost 20 points over the course of a night. -Yes.
Numinen: Yes, thank you.
Twenty points is a pretty large swing in oxygenation levels. Would you agree?
Yes.
And prior to your sleep study where this was identified,
Do you have any indication that he was aware of this before the accident?
-None to my knowledge. -Okay.
I have no other questions, your honor.
So now that we've finished with the testimony
And our witnesses said what we needed them to say,
We've got the evidence in that we need,
It's the prosecutor's burden to show
That jerry was somehow aware
That he was subject to or likely to have a loss of consciousness event.
That hasn't been proven.
It seems to me that the reasons that would necessitate you testifying,
I think have been adequately addressed by these other people.
And I think that the risks of you testifying outweigh the rewards.
If you're looking for me to make a suggestion,
It would be that you don't need to testify.
I'm gonna stick with what you suggest.
What you recommend.
The defendant was operating his motor vehicle on the afternoon of January 13, 2021.
The defendant failed to operate his vehicle as a prudent person would,
And his carelessness took the life of the victim in this case.
If you were driving so tired that you may fall asleep,
I would argue that that is driving carelessly.
You're not acting as a prudent person would, you would pull over and rest.
And with that being said,
I would ask that you find the defendant guilty as charged today. Thank you.
The prosecutor has not proven, by any standard of proof,
Much less beyond a reasonable doubt,
Has not proven that jerry had actual physical control of the car.
He lost consciousness through no fault of his own, period.
He wasn't intoxicated. He wasn't distracted. He lost consciousness.
I'm asking you to go back there, do the right thing, find him not guilty.
Doesn't mean he's innocent, he'll never be innocent.
He's gonna hold this burden the rest of his life.
But he's not guilty of a crime.
Thank you.
Numinen: Now that the trial is done and all the evidence is in,
I breathe a huge sigh of relief.
But I'll tell you, the hardest part of any trial
Is sitting in the hallway waiting while the jury deliberates,
Because then it's beyond my control.
I can't do anything but sit and wait like everybody else.
Mittelstadt: I never sat in a courtroom and had to have somebody else decide my fate.
The range of emotions is ridiculous.
(cell phone ringing)
Hello?
All right, we're on our way up.
Okay.
They got a verdict.
Thank you.
-Thank you for everything. -You're welcome.
Numinen: There's an indescribable feeling right there
In the presence of that moment.
Thank god we were able to get him on the path where he goes home
With his wife, his kids,
And gets to breathe a sigh of relief and put this behind him.
(jen chuckling)
-Such a relief. -Yeah.
It's done.
-Mm. Now we can rebuild our lives... -Yeah.
...And start getting his health fixed.
Start building back up... To normal.
-And we can keep our home. -Yes.
We can keep our home.
A good thing for us today.
At the end of the day,
An accident still happened,
And their family has lost, too, which we feel for that very much.
Mm.