'Where is the justice?' Plea offer in fatal crash draws ire from family of woman who died

Yahoo

07-02-2025

BOYNTON BEACH — Sitting in his suburban Boynton Beach home, Ayal Chomsky described the heartbreak of losing his wife Caryn last summer when a car struck and killed her while she ran with a training partner west of Delray Beach.
As the case against the driver nears its conclusion, Chomsky voiced his anger at the penalties the 20-year-old driver may face.
'Where is the accountability?" he asked. "Where is the justice?'
Myles Denard Scott is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, Feb. 10, where he could accept a plea that would send him to jail for a month.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office has extended an offer that would require Scott to spend 30 days in jail as a condition of receiving six months of probation. He also would have to complete a 12-hour driving course.
Chomsky and other relatives said they intend to attend the hearing to ask County Judge Marni Bryson to reject the plea, arguing that Scott should face harsher penalties in the wreck that killed his wife at age 44.
Prosecutors charged Scott with driving with a suspended license and cited him for careless driving and failing to maintain a single lane in the June 9 death of Caryn Chomsky, a longtime physical therapist who once gained national attention in her fight against cervical cancer.
Wearing a shirt reading 'Justice for Caryn Chomsky,' Ayal Chomsky questioned why Scott was charged with careless driving, a moving violation under state law, instead of either reckless driving or vehicular homicide, both criminal offenses.
The family recently met with prosecutors from the state attorney's office seeking to have Scott charged with vehicular homicide. Their request was denied, Chomsky said.
'It is mind-boggling to think that you could kill someone in such a brutal fashion and walk away unscathed and be charged with a suspended license," Chomsky said.
In a statement to The Palm Beach Post, the state attorney's office said its charging decision was based on evidence presented by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
"The loss of Ms. Chomsky, who was a beloved member of the community, is a tragedy," the statement read in part. "A Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigation determined that reckless driving did not happen prior to the crash. Under Florida law, a charge of vehicular homicide must be based on reckless driving. The PBSO investigation determined it was careless driving, which is a civil traffic citation.
"As a result, the only criminal charge presented to our office was a misdemeanor DUS, or driving while license suspended, revoked, canceled, or disqualified."
Phone messages left for Scott's attorney, Larry Handfield, were not returned.
According to a crash report from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Scott was traveling west on Atlantic Avenue near Florida's Turnpike at about 7 that morning as Chomsky was running east on the north sidewalk.
Scott's 2019 Honda Civic ran off the roadway and up onto the sidewalk, striking Chomsky and vaulting her onto the shoulder of the roadway. The vehicle went down an embankment and into a ditch, the report said. Chomsky died at the scene.
Body-worn camera footage provided by the sheriff's office showed that Scott told deputies he fell asleep behind the wheel and woke up to find Caryn Chomsky's body on his windshield. He also told investigators he was returning home that morning after a trip to Fort Lauderdale.
After initially speaking to deputies at the scene, Scott requested an attorney when a PBSO traffic homicide investigator attempted to conduct a formal inquiry.
Under state law, reckless driving is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail for a first-time conviction and up to six months for a subsequent conviction. Vehicular homicide is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Careless driving is a noncriminal traffic offense punishable by fines and points on the offender's driver's license.
'Careless driving is you don't stop at a stop sign properly. You're five miles over the speed limit, ' Chomsky said. 'Maybe you're in someone else's lane. Careless driving is not going across multiple lanes onto a sidewalk and killing someone. That is not careless driving — that is reckless driving. The case law seems very clear.'
Marc Consalo, an assistant law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said that from an elemental standpoint, a reckless driving charge requires a 'willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.'
'Typically, when discussing the reckless driving statute to juries, attorneys will say that 'willful' means acting with intention, knowledge, or on purpose,' he said in an email to The Palm Beach Post. 'While 'wanton' means behaving with a conscious disregard to consequences that likely will cause damage to persons or property.'
Consalo said law-enforcement officers having difficulty establishing the standard of willful or wanton behavior may often cite a driver for careless driving instead.
'Without speaking to the officer, my guess would be that unless the driver made a statement to the officer that he knew he was sleepy or drowsy before he drove, police did not have enough to meet the burden of 'willful and wanton' behavior,' he said.
Ayal Chomsky questioned why sheriff's investigators did not conduct a field sobriety test or request a blood draw from Scott. A sheriff's spokesperson said deputies did not have probable cause to do so. A sheriff's investigator wrote in his report that Scott "did not display any indicators of impairment."
Consalo said a law-enforcement officer would need a reasonable suspicion to initiate a DUI investigation.
"Typically, (probable cause) is a very low standard. But even being low, you still need something," he said, citing the smell of alcohol, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and empty bottles or cans in plain view as examples.
A man training with Chomsky on the morning of the crash told a sheriff's detective that Scott's vehicle never slowed down as it veered into their path. He said the vehicle appeared to be traveling at a normal speed. Sheriff's records indicated that the posted speed limit for the area was 45 mph.
A man who had been cycling on Atlantic told an investigator the Honda Civic briefly straddled two lanes before stopping at a traffic light. The vehicle pulled away as the light changed to green, overtaking a vehicle in the next lane and traveled just more than 100 yards before drifting to the right and going onto the sidewalk, the cyclist said.
The cyclist said the vehicle showed no indication of braking.
In one body-camera video, Scott, who was 19 at the time, could be seen breaking down into tears before taking a phone call from a relative.
"I just sent someone to their eternal life unintentionally," he told the caller. "She thought she was having a beautiful morning and I thought I was going to make it home safe."
He told an investigator he had just gotten off the turnpike. A relative told investigators Scott was traveling from his grandmother's house. A sheriff's investigative report indicated that Scott's license had been suspended in April 2023 for failing to pay a traffic fine.
Ayal Chomsky said his wife was a voice for others in the community, using her ability to speak sign language to communicate with hearing-impaired patients. Caryn, a longtime physical therapist, was president of Partners in Motion Physical Therapy, with offices in Boynton Beach and Lake Worth.
At age 25, she overcame a cervical cancer diagnosis and her story gained national attention when her mother became a surrogate, giving birth to Caryn and Ayal's twin children, Etai and Maya.
"Caryn was my everything," Ayal Chomsky said. "My best friend, the love of my life, my world. She was an amazing mother, amazing wife, amazing sister, sister-in-law and an amazing physical therapist that gave back a lot to the community."
He vowed that the family will continue its fight for justice no matter what happens in court Monday. He filed a civil lawsuit in December naming Scott and Scott's mother as defendants. Court records show he is seeking damages between $50,000 and $75,000.
But Chomsky said that was not his primary concern.
'The monetary compensation is almost irrelevant,' he said. 'What I'm seeking is justice for Caryn. I'm seeking accountability. I'm seeking for the laws to be enforced."
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Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [e-mail] and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Family to fight plea deal for driver who killed woman out for a run