No jail time for woman accused of hitting firefighters with car

The woman accused of being intoxicated when she hit two Goose Creek firefighters with her car last year will not go to jail.

Jessica Lanier, 26, of Goose Creek stood before a judge in criminal/traffic court in Moncks Corner this morning where she faced a driving under the influence charge, which had been remanded from a more severe charge.

A judge fined her $997, suspended her license for six months and ordered her to take an alcohol intervention program after she pleaded no contest to the charge.

Lanier was first charged with DUI in Oct. 2011. Then in January the charge was upgraded by the S.C. Highway Patrol to felony DUI with great bodily injury. In September, the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office remanded the charge back down to a DUI.

“In this case there was some injury to victim, but it didn’t amount to statutory definition of great bodily injury. Without that, it is not a felony DUI and the appropriate charge was DUI,” said 9th Circuit assistant solicitor Bryan Alfaro.

Goose Creek Fire Capt. Michael Althoff, 46, and firefighter Christopher Harrison, 32, were both in the courtroom for the hearing but didn’t say anything in court.

The pair had been working an accident on U.S. Highway 176 near the Walmart store shortly after midnight on Oct. 19, 2011 when they were struck by a car heading west, according to S.C. Highway Patrol Cpl. Bob Beres.

Both men suffered leg injuries, according to a Goose Creek police report. Lanier told police she drank three beers in three hours that night, the report said.

Read more in tomorrow’s edition of the Post and Courier.