Danielle Dennay Sivels cried as she told a judge how sorry she was for the pain she’d caused a St. Paul mother and her family when the 32-year-old sped through a stop sign and smashed into the woman’s car more than a year and a half ago.
With the young mother slumped over the steering wheel unconscious, Sivels fled.
Sivels, of St. Paul, was arrested later that night after surveillance footage showed her walking away from the accident, which took place in the spring of 2015 at the intersection of East Sixth and Cypress streets in St. Paul.
The woman she hit, Sophia Bouwens, suffered a fractured skull, a brain injury and a broken jaw and leg. The crash happened shortly after Sivels left a liquor store.
“I am so sorry for hurting someone. … I never meant to hurt her,” Sivels said through tears as she stood in the Ramsey County District courtroom to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon. “I didn’t see her there, your honor.”
She went to ask District Judge Joy Bartscher not to send her back to jail, but instead to allow her the opportunity to seek assistance for mental health problems and to stay at home to parent her four children.
Sivels pleaded guilty in May to one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm.
Bartscher granted Sivels’ request and stayed her sentence on the condition she receive a mental health assessment before Dec. 30 and comply with all health care recommendations resulting from it, as well as abstain from mood-altering chemicals and follow all other terms of her probation.
If Sivels complies, she will be off probation in five years. If she doesn’t, Sivels will be ordered to serve 180 days in jail, minus the 50 days she already has spent incarcerated for the crime.
Sivels’ family members were in the courtroom Tuesday and expressed relief at Bartscher’s decision.
It didn’t appear that anyone was present from the victim’s family.
It was about 7 p.m. March 16, 2015, when Sivels sped through the St. Paul stop sign and crashed into Bouwens’ vehicle.
Sivels limped away from the scene on a broken ankle and then lied to officers about her involvement, saying that her Dodge Charger had been stolen at the time of the accident.
Surveillance cameras, however, captured images of Sivels at the scene.
Since the collision, Bouwens walks with a limp and has problems with her short-term memory and eyesight.
Sivels said Tuesday that she has been in touch with Bouwens several times on Facebook and has apologized.
“I’ve told her how sorry I am. … I feel so bad for the pain caused to her and her family,” Sivels said.
Sivels was convicted of drunken driving in 2005 and 2007. She is scheduled to go to trial in February on a third DWI charge related to a July incident.
Bouwens could not be reached for comment Tuesday.