A Mundelein woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for hitting and killing a bicyclist with her car and then leaving the scene of the accident.
Melanie A. Hass, 42, was sentenced Wednesday in Lake County court for the 2023 accident that killed Maureen Wener, a Deerfield school board member. Judge George Strickland handed down the sentence.
Hass pleaded guilty to failing to report an accident involving injury or death for the June 2023 accident.
According to authorities, Hass struck Wener around 12:37 p.m. on June 2, 2023, as Wener rode her bike near the intersection of Deerfield Road and Piccadilly Road in Highland Park.
Police investigated the incident and brought charges in December 2023 against Hass.
“The prison sentence sends the correct message that people must remain on the scene after traffic crashes,” State’s Atty. Eric Rinehart said in a media statement. “This office will seek incarceration sentences for those who criminally abandon their moral responsibility to help others after motor vehicle crashes.”
Wener was a member of the Deerfield District 109 School Board and had previously served on the library board.
A civil suit filed against Hass by Wener’s family alleged that Hass made an illegal U-turn in her Jeep Wrangler before hitting Wener. The suit was settled earlier this year, according to court records.
