GLENDALE, Ariz. — More than a year after Kimberly Pero lost her left leg to an alleged drunk driver, the suspect has yet to be formally charged by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
“15 months, there is no excuse for that,” she told 12News Thursday night. “I did everything and now I can’t. It’s really hard to get used to that.”
Kimberly was an avid motorcycle rider, but that changed on Memorial Day weekend in 2021.
"I'm lying on the pavement"
She and her husband, Tony, were out riding in the West Valley. He had recently bought the new bike he was in.
“I hadn’t even made the first payment when she got hit,” he said.
The couple was at a red light on 67th Avenue and Union Hills drive in Glendale when a car came out of nowhere and hit the bike.
“When the light turned green,” she said. “I looked [one way], I looked [the other way], and the next thing I know, I’m lying on the pavement.”
While she tried to figure out what had just happened, her husband rushed to her aid. He witnessed the whole impact.
“As she pulled away, I saw something in the corner of my eye," Tony said. "I locked the brakes up and I saw her go flying. I just dropped my bike and ran to her. I didn’t even see the gentleman.”
Kimberly was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries to her left leg, but two days later, it had to be amputated from above the knee.
RELATED: 'We can't heal': Family wants justice for man who lost both legs to a suspected drunk driver
Police identified driver with blood-alcohol content twice above legal limit
Glendale Police identified the driver that hit Kimberly as 42-year-old Jason Tasker, who was allegedly driving drunk.
Investigators said Tasker was on the right lane on Union Hills Drive heading west when at the intersection he suddenly turned left and hit Kimberly.
Tasker “was stumbling around and could not stand still” when officers arrived and asked him for his driver’s license, arrest documents showed. “He fumbled through his wallet, dropping [it] twice trying to find it.”
When Tasker finally found his license, investigators said he handed officers “a license of someone else that was not” him, court records said.
Police officers helped Tasker walk to their patrol vehicle because he “could not stand without falling over [and] was stumbling” after he was detained.
Tasker was taken to Glendale City Jail where officers performed two breath tests to check for his alcohol level, records showed. His results came back as 0.155 and 0.157 BAC, both nearly twice above the legal limit.
During a post-Miranda interview, he allegedly told police he had drunk beer, Bud Light, and Heineken.
“While talking to [Tasker] throughout the process, he continued to have slurred speech, was stumbling, and could not provide a correct address,” one officer wrote in arrest documents.
That office made multiple calls on Tasker’s phone, in an attempt to locate someone to come pick him up from jail, but no one answered, court records said.
“I called [Tasker]’s mom and advised her of the situation,” the officer wrote in the report. “I asked if she was able to come to pick [him] up and she advised… [he] has been through this situation again and again and again and she was tired of helping him. She said [Tasker] is 40 years old. He can figure out his problems from there.”
After a few more failed phone calls, the officer took the suspected drunk driver to his home himself, arrest documents said.
12News was unable to reach Tasker for comment on Thursday.
Glendale Police recommended several charges against Tasker, including extreme DUI, to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, but the suspect has yet to be formally charged.
MCAO told 12News that the case is still under review.
Where Kimberly goes from here
That’s the same answer Kimberly and her husband said they have received numerous times they’ve called the office trying to get an update on the case.
“It makes me sad,” she said. “I’m not angry. I [just] don’t want it to be another death or another disfigurement.”
Kimberly and Tony got married eight months before the accident. She had plans to retire soon and live out her best life. But that future has a new road as she continues to adjust to her new life.
“I used to do so many things and I now, physically I’m just so limited. That’s not like me. I went 100 miles an hour and now I’m like at 25 miles an hour,” she said. “It’s one thing that I have to deal with my amputation. I didn’t think I’d have to deal with the county dropping the ball.”
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