Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.COUNCIL BLUFFS — The combined lawsuit against Andrew Schlichtemeier, the drunken motorist who killed four Omaha-area motorcyclists in an August 2010 crash, has basically been settled, with mediation Friday to divide the amounts.
The families of the motorcyclists have accepted Schlichtemier's offer from late last year of the proceeds from the car insurance policies he carried at the time.
"In view of that, there is really no reason to proceed to trial," said Council Bluffs attorney Jake Peters, who represents Cathryn Zanker, the widow of motorcyclist Dale Aspedon.
Barring a late development, this means the civil case against Schlichtemeier, a one-time University of Nebraska-Lincoln honors student and rural Murray, Neb., resident, is over.
Peters would not say how much money the estates of the motorcyclists are dividing, citing conditions of the settlement.
District Judge Greg Steensland will oversee the mediation in Council Bluffs.
On Aug. 9, 2010, motorcyclists Jay Bock of Omaha; Steven Benscoter of Pacific Junction, Iowa; and Dale Aspedon and Dennis Chaney, both of Glenwood, Iowa, were returning home from Sturgis, S.D., southbound on Interstate 29 near Little Sioux, Iowa, when a northbound pickup driven by Schlichtemeier crossed the center line in a construction zone, striking and killing them.
Authorities tested Schlichtemeier's blood and recorded a blood-alcohol content of .373 percent, more than 4½ times the legal limit, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The test also turned up traces of the chemical in marijuana.
Investigators found two baggies containing marijuana, eight 12-ounce cans of Bud Light, all unopened, along with an empty 40-ounce Bud Light bottle in the wreckage of Schlichtemeier's vehicle, which lay on its side after the crash, Iowa State Trooper L.M. Olesen, the primary investigator, said in an interview with The World-Herald.
"It was a rollover situation so things get scattered," he said about the marijuana. "It was in plain view."
In the following months, the families of the motorcyclists separately filed suit against Schlichtemeier. The cases were later combined.
Schlichtemeier pleaded guilty to four counts of motor vehicle homicide in February 2011. He was later sentenced to 50 years.
When he pleaded guilty, Schlichtemeier admitted responsibility in court, with many of the motorcyclists' loved ones in attendance.
"I became intoxicated and drove my vehicle north on Interstate 29, crossed the center line, and came into contact with" — naming the motorcyclists — "resulting in all four fatalities," he said in court.
"I will forever be remorseful," he told the judge. "I am at fault."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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