A Valley attorney and former Maricopa County medical examiner is accused of running over and killing a woman lying in a roadway while driving drunk, then driving away.
Aimee Lorine Butel, listed in court documents obtained by New Times as an attorney for the Phoenix law firm Knapp & Roberts, is accused of running over the woman shortly after midnight on Saturday.
For some reason, the woman Butel allegedly hit was lying naked in the road near 34th Street and Thomas Road. Butel pulled over a block past the spot, as one of her passengers went back to the scene, where a witness was performing CPR on the woman.
When police started showing up, Butel's passenger came back to the car, and Butel told the people in her car that she was taking them home, according to the documents.
"At no point during this did the driver or any of the passengers attempt to contact police, call police, or leave information with any persons in the area for the police to contact them at a later time," according to an officer's probable-cause statement.
Police still managed to find Butel's light blue Toyota Yaris, which had front-end damage.
Butel had bloodshot, watery eyes, and a "moderate" odor of alcohol, according to police. Butel, as well as her passengers, all admitted to having run over the woman in the road.
Butel failed her sobriety tests, and she registered a .129 blood-alcohol level in a breath test.
In addition to being booked into jail on a DUI charge, Butel also faces a felony charge for failing to stay at the scene of a fatal accident.
According to the Knapp & Roberts website, the firm specializes in litigation against the makers of the diabetes drug Actos.
Butel's profile says she went to the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, but before that, graduated from medical school at the University of Arizona, and worked as a pathologist for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office from 2006 to 2009.
A judge ordered that Butel be released from jail with electronic monitoring, pending trial.
