Dartmouth man looks for charge dropped, evidence suppressed in homicide trial

Andrew Johansen, 35 of Dartmouth, who was charged with motor vehicle homicide, will be filing motions to suppress a piece of evidence and to dismiss one of his charges. 

Johansen stated he was attempting to pass traffic on the left when he swerved onto the sidewalk and struck two women. Mary Ptaszenski, age 70, was killed after being struck. Lorraine Driscoll, age 65, was injured. 

During his pretrial hearing, Johansen’s lawyer announced that they will be filing motions to suppress the evidence of the empty bottle of liquor allegedly found in the car. On the scene, he passed a Standardized Sobriety Field Test, which was specifically a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus. During this, his eyes did not involuntarily jerk to the side when looking to the sides. 

There will be a trial where two of the officers from the scene will be interviewed as witnesses on Friday, Oct. 16. 

They are also filing a motion to dismiss the charge of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Johansen was charged with this for hurting and injuring Driscoll. However, his lawyer stated that the evidence from her chiropractor showing her injuries was not enough to justify assault and battery with a deadly weapon, but assault and battery or no charge. 

There will be a hearing to decide whether to drop the charge on Wednesday, Sept. 30. 

This will be decided before the first trial date, on Monday, Jan. 11. If the evidence is suppressed, the evidence will not be considered during the trial. If the assault and battery with a deadly weapon charge is dropped, he will only be tried for the homicide and driving under the influence. 

He is also filing a motion for funding, which will not require its own trial to decide. This will go toward crash reconstruction to ensure the police’s crash reconstruction was done correctly. 

Both Ptaszenski’s family and Driscoll attended his pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 26.