Jessica Ostrowski said she's still waiting for authorities to hand over files related to her 19-year-old son Ethan Bennett's July 28, 2023, traffic death, months after the Inkster Police Department violated Michigan's Freedom of Information Act by not responding to a request she filed after her son's motorcycle collided with a vehicle.
Ostrowski's attorney, Jared Matz, filed a lawsuit March 19 in Wayne County Circuit Court seeking to compel the Inkster Police Department to comply with an Oct. 8, 2023, public records request that sought "the complete unredacted police investigative report, reconstruction report, including photographs, diagrams, witness statements, arrest warrants, 911 audio tape, videos and any and all other records in connection with the ... collision."
When the lawsuit was filed, Inkster Police had provided Ostrowski's attorney with only a two-page Traffic Crash Report. According to the document, Bennett was doing a "wheelie" on westbound Michigan Avenue at Isabelle Street near Middlebelt, when the driver of a 2010 Chevy HHR sport utility vehicle "went to change lanes to get out of his way," the report said.
Police Chief Tamika Jenkins told The Detroit News in April the department was working to turn over the requested files, although she did not explain why authorities hadn't replied to the FOIA request within the timeframe required by Michigan law -- five business days, with municipalities allowed an extension of an additional 10 business days.
Jenkins said earlier this month the department has now complied with Ostrowski's request, including the 911 calls and bodycam video.
"We gave them everything that was in our file -- 90-some pieces of evidence," Jenkins said. "We gave her all the files, and we returned her son's property."
But Ostrowski said police still haven't turned over the audio of 911 calls and footage from police body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras. She said she plans to file another lawsuit to compel police to turn over the files.
"If they tell you they gave me the 911 calls and bodycam and dashcam footage, they're lying," Ostrowski said.
After police turned over more case files, including videos from area businesses, the lawsuit was dismissed in May. But Ostrowski said her attorney agreed to drop the suit without her permission and that she fired him after learning in August that the case had been dropped.
"I kept asking him questions (about the status of the case), and he kept giving me generic answers, so that's when I decided to go down to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice myself ... and found out that he dropped the case," Ostrowski said.
Matz did not respond for comment.
"I didn't want to settle the case until I had everything in the police file, which I still don't have," Ostrowski said.
Charles Hayden, Inkster's attorney in the lawsuit, did not respond for comment.
Ostrowski said she still has many questions about how Inkster police officers handled the case, including why detectives waited nearly a week after the crash to question witnesses and why they waited four months before submitting a warrant to Wayne County prosecutors, as is required in fatal incidents.
Jenkins wasn't Inkster's chief when the crash occurred, although when The News asked her in April why it took nearly a week for police to question witnesses, she said: "Regarding the timing of witness interviews, it's important to note that investigations into such accidents involve multiple factors, including the need to gather and analyze all available evidence.
"Our records indicate that witness statements were obtained as soon as practically possible, considering the complexities involved," Jenkins said earlier this month.
Video of the incident doesn't match the initial Inkster Traffic Crash Report's report that said the driver of the SUV changed lanes to avoid the motorcycle. After sitting near the exit of a Sunoco gas station for 41 seconds, the video shows the driver pulled into the middle lane a split-second before the motorcycle side-swiped the SUV.
But a follow-up report by an Inkster lieutenant that was sent to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office matched what the video showed -- the SUV driver pulled into the middle lane in front of the motorcycle.
Ostrowski also questioned whether the Inkster Police Department provided prosecutors with the correct footage from her son's GoPro helmet. The lawsuit claimed Inkster hadn't provided the footage, although when Ostrowski later submitted the camera's SD card to Ohio-based SecureData for analysis, it showed no footage had been shot the day of the crash.
"Prosecutors looked at video from July 27, not July 28," Ostrowski said. She said the July 27 video showed her son doing wheelies, and she believes that prosecutors based their decision that her son was at fault on the wrong information.
When asked if prosecutors were certain they'd reviewed the correct video, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller said in an email: "Yes, we not only reviewed the GoPro video which showed the wheelie but also reviewed video recorded from a nearby gas station that had the crash.
"Surveillance video from Sunoco gas station at 28474 Michigan Avenue shows the crash but not the wheelie. By the time Ethan's motorcycle enters the screen, the bike is back on two wheels traveling at a very high rate of speed," Miller said in an email. "It is clear from this video alone that Ethan Bennet was at fault for the crash. ... This video by itself would be enough for us to make the determination that Bennet was at fault and that the warrant request against the other driver should be denied."
Miller said the GoPro footage prosecutors reviewed "is not dated or time stamped. We can identify vehicles on screen from westbound traffic that allow us to verify that is from the same date and time as the Sunoco gas station. ... Ethan Bennet is driving at dangerously high speeds and weaving in and out of traffic during this time period. Ethan goes into a 'wheelie' ... approximately 0.3 miles prior to the point of impact. The top speed visible on his digital speedometer reads 95 mph."
Ostrowski admitted her son liked to drive his motorcycle fast, but she said the files she has received don't prove her son was at fault. She also accused police of being quick to blame her son for the crash because the other driver is related to an Inkster city official.
Because the man has not been charged with a crime, The News is withholding his name. He did not respond to a request for comment.
In early January, Ostrowski visited the crash site to put up a memorial of flowers, a candle and a sign honoring her son. She said she has erected several such monuments, only for them to be removed.
"I haven't been out here since August because any time we come out to put any kind of memorial up, it gets removed," she said Jan. 6. "Because Christmas just passed, and the New Year just passed, I decided to come out and put another 'Justice for Ethan' sign up, and some flowers, and hope that no one will remove it this time."
The memorial was still up last Thursday.
Bennett of Canton Township was headed westbound on Michigan Avenue when, at about 3:55 p.m., his 2004 Yamaha motorcycle collided with a 2010 Chevy HHR near Isabella Avenue as it pulled out of a Sunoco gas station into the middle lane.
Bennett died four days before his 20th birthday.
The crash happened a split-second after the HHR pulled out of the gas station driveway, according to a video from the Sunoco station. The motorcycle side-swiped the HHR from the right before ricocheting into the parking lot of the former Applewood Coney Island.
Ostrowski said the driver of the HHR violated the right-of-way by pulling into the middle lane instead of the far-right lane.
"It was supposed to be a quick ride to pay his phone bill, and he'd come right back home," Ostrowski said of her son. "He didn't make it home that day. I got a text message from his girlfriend: 'Is Ethan home?' I said: No. I had an icky feeling and started calling around to police departments and hospitals. ... After calling Wayne Police Department, they said I needed to call Inkster.
"When I called Inkster, they asked me for my full name, my Social Security Number and my driver's license number," she said. "I asked, 'Is my son OK?' They said a detective would call me. ... A detective called back and asked if my son had a red helmet. I said yes, and he said, 'I'm sorry, your son's not alive.'
"The detective said he'd come by my house in a few hours after he was done at the scene to tell me what happened, but that never took place," Ostrowski said. "I didn't talk to him until about five days later."
Ostrowski and her friend Lindsay Turner went to the crash site hours after the crash and the following day.
"There was still evidence here," said Turner, director of a crime victim's advocate nonprofit Can't Stop Won't Stop. "We found parts of Ethan's body, the necklace he was wearing. We interviewed witnesses the police hadn't interviewed yet. I went with Jess two days later to the police station to talk to them, and they were rude. They hung up on me when I tried calling them, and when they finally did sit down with us, they acted like they were doing us a huge favor."
Ostrowski said she's still not satisfied a proper investigation was conducted into her son's death.
"(On the Sunoco gas station video), you can see (the driver of the HHR) sit there for a long time, even when there was no traffic coming, so was he on the phone? The police told me they analyzed his phone calls and texts, but they didn't give me proof of that," she said. "That's among the stuff I've asked for, but they refuse to give it to me for some reason."