Crime & Safety
Judge Tosses Evidence in Vehicular Homicide Case Involving Moorestown Woman
Shannon Sidorek, of Pemberton Township, is accused of being under the influence in the crash that killed 81-year-old Elizabeth Smith two years ago.
A judge has ordered evidence be thrown out in the case against a Pemberton Township accused of vehicular homicide in the 2012 death of an 81-year-old Moorestown woman.
The Burlington County Times reported that Superior Court Judge Terrence R. Cook ruled that a police officer's search of Shannon Sidorek's car at the scene of the crash, which led to the discovery of pill bottles in her purse, violated her constitutional rights.
Cook issued the ruling Monday before Sidorek was due in court for a status conference on charges of vehicular homicide and possession of a controlled dangerous substance, according to the Times. She has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities allege Sidorek was high on morphine and Oxycontin when she veered across the center line of the Pemberton Bypass and struck Elizabeth Smith's vehicle head-on on Feb. 28, 2012.
Smith, of Moorestown, died at the scene of the crash. Sidorek was pulled from her 1997 Acura and flown to a Trenton hospital, where blood samples were drawn and submitted for forensic testing, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office. The tests allegedly came back positive for narcotics.
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Smith was a founding member of Save The Environment of Moorestown (STEM) and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
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