A Portage man facing felony charges for allegedly causing a multi-car crash in Portage two years ago in which a Chesterton Middle School teacher died has submitted a guilty plea.
Arthur Schmidt, 44, submitted a guilty plea to a Level 5 felony charge of criminal recklessness. A second Level 5 felony charge, reckless homicide, would be dismissed if a Porter Superior Court judge accepts Schmidt’s plea agreement, filed Monday.
Eighth-grade English teacher Lauren Thompson, 24, died in a six-vehicle wreck the evening of Nov. 8, 2022, at Willowcreek and Lute Road that police said was likely caused by a speeding SUV. Thompson, of Valparaiso, was in her second year as a teacher at Chesterton Middle School.
Schmidt was critically injured in the pileup and transported to a Chicago hospital as a result of his injuries. Prosecutors did not file charges against Schmidt until June 2023, seven months after the crash, because of the extent of his injuries and Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann has said, because of the complexity of the case and difficulty in getting the hospital to release Schmidt’s medical records.
Thompson, who died at the scene, was in her second year as an English teacher at the middle school at the time of her death. Schmidt, who had to be extricated from his vehicle, suffered serious head and internal injuries in the crash. Another driver also was injured; other drivers and passengers were checked for injuries at the scene.
Multiple witnesses told investigators that Schmidt was driving at a high rate of speed, weaving around cars and running red lights before the crash, according to the charging documents, and that they knew he was going to hit the vehicles going east and west on Lute Road as he ran a red light on Willowcreek Road.
The speed limit on Willowcreek Road is 40 mph, according to the charges, and is 35 mph on Lute. Schmidt was driving a gray 2016 Cadillac SRX SUV heading south on Willowcreek Road, going “really, really fast,” a witness told police, and went through the red light.
Schmidt’s SUV struck Thompson’s white, 2016 GMC Terrain first, pushing it into another car, and then hit several other vehicles.
Police, according to the charges, found a jumble of cars at the intersection after the wreck.
The speedometer on Schmidt’s car the evening of the crash “showed the needle was stuck in place at the 122 mph mark,” charges state. Investigators downloaded information from the event data recorder in Schmidt’s SUV.
The download showed that five seconds before the crash, Schmidt’s SUV was traveling at 113 mph and the accelerator was at 98%. Half a second before impact, with the brakes on, the vehicle’s speed was 107 mph.
The sentence for a Level 5 felony is one to six years in the Indiana Department of Correction and a fine of up to $10,000. According to the proposed plea, there is no cap on incarceration or probation.
Schmidt’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 15.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
