July 18, 2002
A Fairfax County grand jury on Monday indicted the man believed responsible for striking a 5-year-old Centreville girl with his car and driving off. He is Duane Thompson, 38, of 14530 Gateshead Lane in Manassas.
The incident occurred May 2, around 8:30 a.m. The child, Ashley Dubey of the Crofton Commons community, was crossing Old Centreville Road at Cottingham lane to catch a bus for Bull Run Elementary, where she was in kindergarten.
She sustained a serious head injury after being struck with Thompson's maroon, 1997 Chrysler Cirrus. Witnesses obtained the license-tag number and Thompson was arrested later that morning. Police charged him with felony hit-and-run, which is punishable by as much as five years in prison.
As for Ashley, she's currently in a rehabilitation hospital in Charlottesville, trying to regain the use of her right arm and leg. "She's going to take a long time to heal," said her mother, Seema Dubey. "She wants to get out of there and go home and play with her friends — after all, it's summertime. It breaks my heart. [Being stuck in a hospital] is like a punishment for her."
She was standing beside Ashley when the car hit her, propelling her some 50 feet into the air, before she landed on the pavement. Said Dubey: "When I close my eyes, I see it again."
On July 9, in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Judge Gayl Carr heard testimony from witnesses and police — who testified about the damage and hair fibers they found on Thompson's car. She sent the case to the grand jury and, on Monday, Thompson was indicted. He's scheduled for a Sept. 4 trial.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs