Cops: Alcohol, phone use suspected in fatal crash

Police suspect that the woman who killed a utility worker after hitting a crew in West Chester in April was under the influence and using her phone at the time of the accident, documents show.

Based off reports from officers at the scene, police believe that Michele Schuster, 23, was under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at the time of the accident, according to an application and affidavit for a search warrant in the Butler County Area Court obtained by The Enquirer.

Three warrants were filed in relation to the April 22 incident.

One of the three warrants requests access to the interior of Schuster's Chevrolet Cavalier in an effort to collect "beer cans or liquor containers, syringe or pill bottles or other drug paraphernalia indicating the use of drugs and alcohol at the time of the crash."

An additional warrant seeks the iPhone found on Schuster at the time of the accident. Police believe the phone may hold evidence that could lead to a charge of aggravated vehicular assault, the warrant states.

The warrant seeking an aggravated vehicular assault charge was executed on April 29 – four days before utility worker Amber Rooks succumbed to her wounds.

Officials from the West Chester Police Department have not filed charges, according to Public Affairs Officer Michelle Berling.

Berling said that the police department was waiting on lab results before any charges would be filed.

Five workers were hospitalized as a result of the April 22 crash.

Tiffanie McCants, 35, of Cincinnati; Bill Moore, 47, of Hustonville, Kentucky.; Joseph Olephant, 53, of Sonora, Kentucky.; and Amber Marie Rooks, 24, of Norwood were all struck in the initial accident.

A fifth utility worker, Blake Patton, 22, of Cleves, was working in the bucket of the utility vehicle during the crash. He was taken to the hospital later in the day.

The crash represents the second case of a utility worker injured on the job in Greater Cincinnati in 2015.

A utility worker died Feb. 6 after being struck by an alleged drunken driver on the side of Dixie Highway in Florence, Kentucky, according to Enquirer archives.