CLEVELAND, Ohio -- David and Melissa Thies finally got the chance to face the drunken driver who left their Maple Heights home in ruins.

He refused to face them.

Michael Clewlow stared straight ahead in Garfield Heights Municipal Court on Thursday as the Thieses told Judge Jennifer Weiler about the terror they felt the October night Clewlow’s airborne Chevy Impala crashed through the first floor of their home, trapping them on the second floor.

The car turned the kitchen and staircase into rubble and severed the water and gas lines. As they waited for rescue, they told the judge, the smell of natural gas permeated the air.

“We said our goodbyes,” Melissa Thies said, her voice quavering.

“We have flashbacks,” her husband said. “There’s not a day that goes by where a smell, a sound, flashes us back to that moment. It was absolute hell.”

Police pulled Clewlow from the driver’s seat. His blood alcohol level was .310. The crash marked his third DUI since 2008.

The busy courtroom, packed for a cattle call of misdemeanor hearings from Garfield and surrounding cities, hushed as the Thieses told Judge Weiler that possessions not buried in debris were water damaged.

Clewlow was uninsured, so the Thieses are fighting with their homeowners' insurer about the scope of repairs. The report State Farm provided the couple suggests carpentry and tuck-pointing will do the trick, but Maple Heights' building official has said he suspects structural damage. The Thieses, who want the house razed, hired their own engineer to assess the damage.

David and Melissa Thies walk out of their boarded-up home in Maple Heights. They want the house razed. Their insurer claims its fixable.

The postwar bungalow on Rockside Road remains boarded up.

Clewlow lives in Garfield Heights, just blocks from the Thieses' house in Maple Heights. A couple months after he crashed into their house, he was arrested in Garfield Heights for public intoxication after banging on a stranger’s front door after a night at the bar.

Maple Heights’ prosecution of the DUI case was rote, at best.

Alcohol treatment and jail time are mandatory for anyone convicted of a third drunken driving charge within six years. The possible sentence ranges from 30 days to a year.

On Jan. 2, the Thieses showed up at a pretrial hearing for Clewlow, one the Maple Heights prosecutor’s office had said they needn’t attend, to find the prosecutor and defense attorney cutting a deal that could let Clewlow serve as little as 30 days in jail if he agreed to alcohol treatment.

The Thieses were so upset, the prosecutor reluctantly rescheduled so they could get a statement together for the court.

When the couple arrived at the court Thursday morning, Maple Heights Law Director John Montello brusquely told them he’d seen their letter asking for restitution. “I don’t think the court will do it,” he said, turning away to arrange files.

When Clewlow’s case was called, Montello told the judge it was Clewlow’s third DUI in six years but that Clewlow was prepared to plead no contest to a charge of operating a vehicle under the influence and a failure to control in exchange for dropping several other charges, including one based on his blood-alcohol level.

“So what’s the facts?” Weiler asked. “What happened?”

“Unfortunately, he kind of passed out at the wheel, your honor, and rammed into a house and knocked it off its foundation,” Montello said.

“Your honor, he put a Chevy Impala inside our house,” David Thies told the judge.

The Thieses said they lost work time to attend meetings with claims adjusters and renovators. They expect the $12,000 to raze the house to come out of their own pockets, along with $2,000 to hire their own engineer, Melissa Thies said. Although they hired an insurance lawyer to help them deal with their claim, attorneys they consulted about suing Clewlow for damages said they were unlikely to find a lawyer willing to take on a case against an uninsured waiter.

“Our savings account has been depleted,” Melissa Thies said. They pay two mortgages – one for a house they had just bid on before the crash – and one for the Rockside Road house, which they can no longer rent out as planned.

“You have no remorse at all,” Thies said, turning toward Clewlow, who stared ahead. “You made us lose everything. We walked out of that home … with no clothes, no underwear, no toothbrush, no nothing.”

Weiler said she would order restitution but cautioned the couple they were unlikely to receive much money. Then she looked at Clewlow and explained the sentencing options Ohio law gave her.

“Having heard all that, Mr. Clewlow, how do you want to plead?” Weiler asked.

“No contest,” he said.

“I’m going to enter a finding of guilt,” Weiler said. “Mr. Montello, what do you want to say about the sentencing?”

“I believe the victims have said it all, your honor,” Montello answered.

The defense attorney told the court that Clewlow was devastated about what had happened and was an alcoholic who was a fine person when he wasn’t drinking.

Weiler looked at Clewlow. “What do you want to say, young man?”

“I’m really sorry about what happened,” he told the judge. Clewlow said he started drinking after a tour of Iraq with the Army, and that after the back-to-back DUIs in 2008, he briefly sought treatment through the Veterans Administration.

Weiler asked why he drove without insurance. He said he’d let it lapse because he was “busy working.”

“OK, well, here’s the thing,” Weiler said. “You’re a young man, you’re not even 30 years old, this is your third driving under the influence count within six years, ok? ... I gotta look at taking you off the road because you could have killed somebody.”

“What your conduct suggests,” she continued, “is that you’re not doing anything to take responsibility for your actions.

“You’ve had two prior offenses, now you’ve got another one, you had an extremely high blood alcohol reading, which suggests you drink all the time and you drink a lot.

“Right after this event happened, you get tagged for public intoxication. So this was not a wakeup call for you. Rather, you continued to drink.”

With that, Weiler ordered Clewlow to jail for a year. “I’m gonna suspend 30 days for the simple fact that’s the only way I can hold time over your head to order you to do other things,” Weiler said.

She added five years’ probation. Mandatory alcohol treatment. A 10-year license suspension. Each are the maximum allowed.

Weiler ordered $650 in bonds Clewlow posted to be released to the Thieses.

“Mr. Clewlow, you better think what your life is about,” Weiler said. “You’re 29 years old, you’re in the best part of your life, and you’re throwing it away for alcohol.”

Clewlow was taken from the courtroom to the county jail. Afterward, Melissa Thies wiped away tears, relieved about the sentence but angry Clewlow never acknowledged what he had put them through.

“If he’d just faced us,” her husband said.

But they had little time to dwell on the hearing. They had an appointment to keep with structural engineer at the Maple Heights house.

They didn't want to be late. They are paying out of pocket.

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