"Do you have a son"? "What's his name"? "How old is he"? "He has been in a serious accident, please come immediately". Those were the words that the nurse on duty uttered to me from Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, Florida that early morning of April 7, 2002. This call is every parent's worse nightmare.

On April 7, 2002, 18-year old Justin Paul Allen, who was under the influence of alcohol while operating his vehicle in a careless, reckless and extremely dangerous manner, ran over and killed our son, Justin Matthew McWilliams, who was only twenty (20) years old, as he and his friends were exiting a party being held in a pasture in Winter Garden, Florida. After running Justin completely over, leaving him face down in this pasture with his four (4) traumatized friends, he left the scene (despite the fact that the 911-operator emphatically stated to Mr. Allen, "you need to stay there until the police get there. That's what you need to do right now"), returning to the crash site some three (3) hours later. The incident occurred at 3:30 A.M. Justin Allen's blood alcohol test was administered at 7:00 A.M. The extrapolated BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) was .062. The legal drinking age in the State of Florida is 21-years old. While the State of Florida is a zero tolerance State for underage drinking and driving, and even though the driver was 18-years old, because he didn't register above .08, he was not charged.

After many months of prodding the State Attorney to review this case for further charges, on September 3, 2002, charges were filed for Leaving the Scene of an Accident with a Fatality, pursuant to Florida Statute 316.027 (1) (b). On March 28, 2003, the Charge was dismissed for Lack of Jurisdiction. Apparently, "316 does not apply".

Florida Statute 316.072, (1) Provisions of this Chapter referring to vehicles upon highways. The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to the operation of vehicles and bicycles in the movement of pedestrians upon all state maintained highways, county maintained highways and municipal streets and alleys wherever vehicles have a right to travel. The Legislature excluded from the definition of "streets and highways" all private property and private roadways, not traveled by the public, not covered by a written agreement with the owners otherwise authorizing jurisdiction for enforcement, Florida Statute 316.003 (50) and (53). As a result, private property and private roadways are beyond jurisdiction and State and local traffic control. While the Driving Under the Influence Statute (316.193 Florida Statute) is enforceable on private property, as previously stated, Mr. Allen (who was only 18-years old at the time of this incident) was not charged with DUI as he did not register above the .08 BAC some 3 hours after he ran over and killed our son. Ironically, the Court deemed that since this incident occurred on private property "316" did not apply.

On March 13, 2003, the videotaped deposition of former Orange County Assistant Medical Examiner William Anderson was ascertained by our Civil Attorney, Russell Troutman (it should be noted that Elliott Wilcox the Assistant State Attorney handling the criminal case was invited to attend this deposition, however; no one from the State Attorney's Office appeared). In this deposition, Dr. Anderson confirmed, under Oath, that Justin McWilliams' injuries were consistent with the fact that he was struck and run over from behind; that his body was in fact found laying the same direction the vehicle was traveling, some several feet from any type of alleged hole that he was to have fallen into.

Despite the on-the-record testimony of Dr. Anderson, along with the 911 Tapes, which revealed that Justin Allen stated to the operator, "I'll run 'em I'll run 'em over" and then does, some 22-seconds later, The State of Florida chose not to file additional charges against Justin Allen in the death of Justin McWilliams. We were advised of the State's decision not to pursue additional charges by Steve Foster, a Senior staff attorney with the State Attorney's Office, shortly after The Orlando Sentinel had already contacted me for a statement. Of course, I followed up with emails to State Attorney Lawson Lamar as to what information/material they had reviewed in order to come to their decision. What I got was an email from Mr. Lamar's number two man, Bill Vose, apologizing for the fact that The Orlando Sentinel got to me before they (the State Attorney's Office) did! Nonetheless, he indicated that his office had reviewed the information and wouldn't be filing additional charges. As a mother who still had not received a straight answer, I pursued it further, asking for a sit-down meeting to discuss the specifics. We were indeed curious as to how they would exclude the forensic evidence that clearly substantiated that our son was struck from behind. The forensic evidence provided by Dr. Anderson directly conflicted with the witnesses who were in the truck with Justin Allen. Not surprising. Nonetheless, as parents of the victim, we were entitled to a face-to-face meeting. There was no offer of a meeting, no discussion. The Orange/Osceola State Attorney's Office simply chose to ignore us all together.

From a criminal perspective, if the State of Florida didn't believe in the charge they were filing, what options did we have as parents of the victim? The answer, none. No matter which direction we chose to go, this case was put to bed by the State of Florida. Out of respect for our son's memory, we chose to move in a more positive direction. That being said, I feel compelled to state the following: The Orange/Osceola State Attorney's Office, which is under the direction of State Attorney Lawson Lamar, is shadowed by sheer incompetence. Their lack of investigation, ignorance of crucial facts and serious lack of work ethic, leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those that have no choice but to deal with them. We can only continue to look to the future in hopes that someone with a work ethic and a desire to prosecute those individuals who break the laws in the State of Florida, will step forward and run for the honor of being the next Orange/Osceola State Attorney. Obviously, this is the complete antithesis of what we have with State Attorney Lawson Lamar, whose sole desire it would appear, is to prosecute only those "slam dunk" cases which require little work, in an effort to increase the numbers on his political scoreboard.