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Man imprisoned for double fatality now faces civil suits

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Chad Spence is escorted into the Washington County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing in December 2018.

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Observer-Reporter

Emergency responders work at the scene after a vehicle crashed into a building at Washington Health System’s Neighbor Health Center in June 2018.

A Weirton, W.Va., man who was sentenced earlier this summer in connection with two deaths June 6, 2018, at the Neighbor Health Center now faces civil suits.

Chad Spence, 44, pleaded no contest last month to charges filed after the deaths of Kimberly Dollard, 57, of Amwell Township, who worked at the health center, and David Adams, then 86, of Washington, who was about to leave the facility on Leonard Avenue.

Adams died Jan. 30 at South Hills Rehabilitation Center, where he had been a patient since the crash.

Attorney Bradley Bassi filed two separate writs of summons against Spence on behalf of the deceased; and the executors of their estates, Dale M. Dollard, husband of Kimberly Dollard, and Robin Richard Layhue, who was listed in Adams’ obituary as a member of his “second family” who cared for him.

Spence is serving 6½ to 13 years in prison for Dollard’s death, followed by 10 years of state probation for Adams’ death.

Investigators said Spence’s Jeep Liberty descended Sharp Avenue in Washington fast enough for it to become airborne before penetrating a wall of Washington Health System Neighbor Health Center in an area where patients register for services.

Spence allegedly told the detective he’d been in town for an appointment at a Suboxone clinic on Locust Street a block away.

Dollard was pronounced dead at her workplace, while Adams was injured and flown to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh.

Spence was taken to Washington Hospital, where he was released after a few hours.

The state Department of Corrections database shows Spence is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill near Harrisburg.

As part of his sentence, Judge Valarie Costanzo ordered Spence to pay restitution for funeral expenses.

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