Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Party House' Parents Charged in Teen's Drunk Driving Death

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Sophia Lekiachvili, 18, died last February in Dekalb County, Georgia when the car driven by her friend crashed. The district attorney says that friend Hannah Hackemeyer, 18, was driving drunk. The parents of one of their friends, Sumanth Rao and Anandita Rao, are now charged with involuntary manslaughter for Sophia's death after the DA said they allowed the teens to drink at their home. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/YouTubeTakeoverHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Meg Strickler https://x.com/megstricklerCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. Hannah was speeding more than 60 miles per hour over the limit, hitting 98 just one second before the crash. The car's computer also revealed she never tapped the brakes. A teenage girl's parents faced charges in a drunk driving crash that killed her friend. There is no greater responsibility in life than for a parent and a child and to keep them safe. I have the details on why the parents are in legal hot water and the sad case of Sophie Leschiavelli out of Georgia. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Last February, Sophie Leschiavelli was having fun

with her friends when the DA in DeKalb County, Georgia, outside of Atlanta, said one of those friends drove drunk and killed her. 18-year-old Hannah Hackmeyer was behind the wheel. The DA says Hackmeyer was drunk when she lost control of the car, causing it to flip. The crash killed Sophie, who was in the passenger seat. The DeKalb County DA's office held a press conference laying out all of the details, beginning when DeKalb County police arrived to the scene around 12.11 a.m. They found a blue Mazda CX-5 flipped over upside down in the roadway. The driver, Hannah Hackmeyer, and her backseat passenger, Anana Rao, were able to crawl out of the vehicle. But Sophia Lescavelli was trapped in the front passenger seat. First responders extracted Sophia from the car and rushed her to the hospital, where she later died from her injuries. Data recovered from the car's airbag control module showed that Hannah was speeding more than 60 miles per hour over the limit, hitting 98 just one second before the crash.

The car's computer also revealed she never tapped the brakes. Using both a portable breath test and a blood test, investigators determined Hannah Hackmeyer was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.046, more than twice the legal limit for someone under the age of 21. The three friends, Hannah, Sophie, and Ananya Rao, were drinking at Ananya's home, which had a reputation as being a party house. The investigation revealed that this wasn't just a one-time thing. This type of behavior was common and frequent. Parties on Halloween, homecoming,

even the last day of school were hosted at the Rouse residence. And each time, the DA says the parents allowed underage drinking. While Hannah Hackmeyer was the one behind the wheel that terrible night, we have determined that she was not the only one responsible for what happened.

Through our investigation, we learned that Hannah, Sophia, and Ananya had spent the evening of February 23rd at Ananya's house. The friends shared a bottle of wine in the kitchen in plain view of Ananya's parents, Sumanth and Andita Rao. At around 11.45 p.m., the teens told Mr. Rao they wanted to go for a drive. Ananya's parents knew the girls had been drinking, but they still let them get into a car and leave the house with an open bottle of wine in the front seat. Less than 30 minutes later, a little more than a half mile away, that decision would prove deadly. The driver,

Hannah Hackmeyer, is charged with three counts of homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence, and reckless driving, while the alleged party house parents, Sumanth and Anandita Rao, each face involuntary manslaughter charges. Since the indictment, Hannah has posted a $25,000 bond and she's awaiting her next court date. She's being held within her home. Anandita has surrendered herself and is currently awaiting her arraignment in the DeKalb County Jail while her husband, Sumanth, is expected to surrender when he returns from a business trip. The RAL's daughter, Ananya, has not been charged with any crimes regarding this incident. According to Sophie's LinkedIn, she went to Lakeside High School. She was a student and

she started working as a data manager and analyst at Tinkermeister Incorporated. She loved working with data and developed a wide range of skills since being at the company. Before that, she worked full time at an adventure camp in Germany as a camp counselor. She was always up for a challenge. After the crash, Lakeside High School sent a letter home to parents and guardians. It said, please keep the families in your thoughts and prayers. Sophie's parents have asked for privacy during this extremely difficult time. Keeping our focus on the facts and not speculation around circumstances leading to the accident is paramount.

I want to take a moment to tell you about Morgan & Morgan, which is sponsoring today's Law & Crime YouTube Takeover. With the cases I cover here on Crime Fix, you know the world can be very dangerous, and if you are ever hurt, you might need a lawyer. Morgan & Morgan is America's largest injury law firm, and they can help you. Morgan & Morgan has won some really big verdicts, like $12.2 million in Florida, $26.2 million in Philly, and $6.8 million in New York.

All of those were significantly higher than the highest insurance company offer. There are no upfront fees. You only pay Morgan & Morgan if you win. So give it a try. You can submit a claim in eight clicks or less. Just log on to www.forthepeople.com slash YouTube takeover. So how common is it for parents to face charges in a case like this one?

I wanna bring in Meg Strickler. She is a defense attorney in Georgia and actually is very familiar with the DeKalb County area. So Meg, your thoughts on the parents being indicted for involuntary manslaughter and other charges in this case, including maintaining, I think, a disorderly house, which is something I had not really heard of before. Well, I wanted, I like Sherry Boston. She's the district attorney for DeKalb County and I respect her. So when I see her press conference and she's saying, look, I had to charge this because when I looked at the egregiousness of the conduct,

I had to do something. I do think that's a heartfelt message she's saying. And so when you look at the indictment, in order to charge involuntary manslaughter, she had to do the reckless conduct charge. The House thing, I've never heard of it myself. So I think she's just kind of pointing out to potential jurors, here's the entire storyline, and this is what happened. And I think what she believes, and I live in DeKalb County. My office is in Fulton County, but I'm very familiar with that area. And to speed on that road takes some egregiousness.

And so I'm a little surprised they didn't also add aggressive driving or reckless driving or something like this. And maybe they did to the person that was driving. I did not look at the specific charges other than the DUIs and the vehicular homicide. But to answer your question, it's the egregiousness. I think that's why we're here. It's one thing to, you know, I have teenagers. There are things that have a suspicion goes on in my teenager's life that I don't really approve of. I sure as heck am not hating alcohol. But I think it would be my denial if I didn't think teenagers drink alcohol.

That's one level of okay, I would argue. But it's not okay to say, all right, I'm going to give wine and let the whole neighborhood know that y'all can come to my house and drink. That's one more level of egregiousness. And the final level of egregiousness is letting them get out in the car. That's the line that was crossed. And that's why Sherry Boston's like, I've got to charge these parents for this behavior to allow anyone in 2024 to drive is wrong. Yeah, to me, it seems to me, I mean, we have an 18-year-old girl who had her whole life ahead of her who's dead. I mean, it's a horrible story. And the DA is clearly sending a message because she's saying this wasn't an isolated incident. She's saying this was the party house. The Rouse allowed this regularly.

And they're letting the kids sit there and drink wine. The Rouse daughter, of course, is not facing charges because she wasn't the one behind the wheel. Hannah Hackmeyer was the friend of her daughter and the friend of Sophie. But they're saying this was a party house and this was allowed a lot and they just condoned it. And so is the DA partly sending a message that this is not going to be condoned in DeKalb County? I think it's a fantastic message. And I, that's what I hope she is doing. And I think that's what one's job is when you are the district attorney. If you're the attorney though Meg for the Rouse representing them, is this a tough case

to defend or is it an easy case to defend? I mean you've got minors sitting around you. You can hear my point of view. I'm actually very prosecutorily oriented when it comes to drunk driving. And so all lawyers are going to have different idiosyncratic points of view, period. But what I use is law. And I use that in defending my clients. Okay. Everyone has to defend their cases. Okay. So in this context, if I'm going to flip my hat, I was wearing more of a prosecutorial hat a minute ago. Now I'm going to wear a defense hat. The defense hat is, this is completely overcharged. They overcharged these people. And I do think they could 100% get a misdemeanor conviction of just reckless conduct, because I do think the behavior that's alleged in the indictment 100% equals reckless conduct.

Now, you're gonna hear me get confused when I say this to you. If I'm saying that they can have a conviction for reckless conduct, by definition, if that reckless conduct caused a death, they are then also can be convicted of involuntary manslaughter. So I'm gonna say something that's gonna make a little bit of not sense to you.

When we have law and we have jurors, they're going to probably get confused. And so if we went to trial with these charges, my guess is they would do the House one so that the parents would get convicted of something, but then they wouldn't have to be convicted of the felony. Does that make any sense to you? Because I think that's why that third charge is there. There deserves to be a resolution here, sure of a felony conviction, because this does need to make a statement. And they were reckless and really in the wrong.

So you think you you think because I almost this almost gets me thinking about the Crumbly case in Michigan. You know, that's a school shooting case. Totally different, but kind of the same. Because, I mean, the allegation is that not only were you providing the alcohol you had to have been because these are minors, but you're allowing them to drink it and then allowing them to get into a vehicle. Yes. You're in charge of the kids. I mean, you're they're minors. Well, Sophie was 18. But you, you're supposed to have these kids at your house, they go out for a drive, you could have basically said, No, you've been drinking, you're not getting in a car and going out at 1145 at

night, and then they rack and Sophie dies. But it kind of reminds me of that. So you think but you think involuntary manslaughter could be a tough sell here? I do. I do. And it just you asked me as a defense lawyer, I think if we got to a point where if the lawyer who represents them gets to a lot of discussions with the prosecutor and makes some statements to the effect of, I have, I was, these were my issues at the time. I was a very busy surgeon. I'm making

this up. You know, and I'm not, he's not excusing this, but we were on the treadmill of life and we were not paying attention to all of our misjudgments and bad judgments. And we are going to pledge to make better on this. Okay. And we will never let this happen again. And we will, you know, do whatever DeKalb County needs us to do to further educate other people in the future. Maybe go speak to high schools about the choices of drinking and driving. The fact that you can have one drink and you're already over the legal limit,

because remember the legal limit for people under 21 is so low. So you can have just a half glass, one glass, whatever, if it gets metabolized quickly. I don't think still to this day kids get that you can have one or two drinks and be DUI as opposed to adults. You know, we are a.08, which is probably two glasses of one or two beers, three beers, depending on who you are. Now, that would be a great thing that Sherry Boston would request is you've got to from here on out do a community service project. And I would suggest that as a defense lawyer. We're going to do this from here on out. Another suggestion would be is we will never have alcohol in our house again.

Make promises and put it in writing. You know, and I think that would move the needle back down on misdemeanor. Well, it will be interesting to see how it pans out and how this case resolves itself. But that poor Sophie, Sophie and her family, it breaks my heart as a mom. And it makes me want to wrap my son in bubble wrap until he's like 30.

Meg Strickler, you know, it's awful. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.