HANCOCK COUNTY — Four days after Jennifer Sloan fell from the back of a pickup truck and sustained a life-threatening head injury, the man driving the vehicle has been officially charged.
Michael Scott Kavanaugh, 42, New Palestine, is facing a Level 4 felony count of causing catastrophic injury when operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and a Class A misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated-endangering a person. The most serious charge carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
Kavanaugh has been sitting in the county jail since the incident early Sunday, June 6, while officers from the New Palestine Police Department investigated how Sloan fell and was injured.
The incident happened around 2 a.m. outside the Round the Corner Grill, 19 S. Bittner Road in New Palestine. According to a probable cause affidavit, Sloan, 44, New Palestine; and Ryan Barker, 27, Greenfield, had walked to bar earlier in the night. Kavanaugh arrived later, but the three left at the same time, around 2 a.m. The affidavit describes the three as friends.
Barker told investigators he and Sloan climbed onto the tailgate of Kavanaugh’s pickup to get a ride home and told him to go slowly. But, Barker said, “he just took off like a banshee,” the affidavit said. Barker and Sloan tumbled off the tailgate, and Sloan struck her head on the pavement. According to the affidavit, Barker told police he tried to catch Sloan as they were falling but was unable to break her fall. He hit his own head and even blacked out for a moment, the affidavit said.
Police administered a field sobriety test on Kavanaugh and later drove him to Hancock Regional Hospital for a blood draw for a toxicology test. Kavanaugh told an investigator he had been drinking during the night and said, “I’m obviously intoxicated, but they were double or more than me,” the affidavit said.
Kavanaugh told police “they (Sloan and Barker) were being idiots.”
Kavanaugh was booked into the Hancock County Jail early Sunday morning.
New Palestine Police Chief Bob Ehle had hoped to acquire surveillance camera footage from the bar that would help investigators reconstruct the events. The bar does have cameras, but its system did not save a recording and apparently had not been recording for some time, Ehle said in the affidavit.
Sloan was taken to IU Methodist Hospital and remained in critical condition as of the Daily Reporter’s deadline on Thursday, June 10. Barker was taken to Hancock Regional Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and was released.
Kavanaugh is expected to have an initial appearance at 11:15 a.m. today (Friday, June 11) in Hancock County Superior Court 1 in front of Judge D.J. Davis, where a bond will be set and future court dates determined.
