INDEPENDENCE, Ky. -- Standing in court Monday, Nancy Dishman hoped she would be able to look Daniel Greis in the eye.
"I want him to see the family that he tore apart," she said. "The holidays have been terrible. All we did was cry."
Police accused 57-year-old Greis of drunken driving at nearly 100 miles per hour Oct. 26 when his car crossed the center line of Staffordsburg Road and collided with the car carrying Dishman's relatives: Rodney Pollitt, Jr., 26; Samantha Malohn, 27; and their children Hailieann, Brenden and Cailie Pollitt, who were 9, 8 and 6, respectively. They had been planning to buy Halloween costumes for later in the week, Dishman said.
All five Pollitt family members died in the crash. One first responder called the scene "worse than anything Hollywood could dream up," and police charged the seriously injured Greis with five counts of murder.
Greis' injuries were what kept him out of court Monday, according to his legal team. In his previous court appearance Nov. 8, attendants wheeled him into the room on a hospital bed.
Dishman said he ought to have been there. She wants to see the legal system "lock him up, throw away the key and never let him out again," but she wants catharsis first.
"I want him to look into my eyes," she said. "Rodney was a hard-working father. He was a wonderful son. Samantha was a wonderful mother, and because this idiot wanted to drink and drive … he took everything from my family, from Samantha's family.
"It's been hell. That's the only way to sum it up. It's been hell."
