By Jessica Pierce
George Polisse Jr. said his family has no hard feelings toward the man who is charged with killing his sister in an alleged drunk-driving wreck early Thursday morning.
"I can see if people are mad," said Polisse, the brother of crash victim Casey Polisse. "But I can't be mad at him because he's a good guy. He didn't, by no means, want anything like this to happen - he loved her so, so much, and people need to know that."
Jamie L. Giles, 26, of Macedon Center Road, was allegedly drunk and speeding when he crashed a pickup truck into a utility pole on Division Street, just north of the village. He was not seriously hurt but Ms. Polisse, his girlfriend, suffered massive internal injuries and was pronounced dead at Newark-Wayne Hospital.
Giles and was arraigned late Thursday morning in Palmyra Town Court on charges of felony driving while intoxicated and first-degree vehicular manslaughter. He was sent to the Wayne County Jail on $50,000 cash or $100,000 bail bond.
George Polisse Jr. said his sister Casey, 27, and Giles were on their home when the crash happened. The two had been out with him and friends at a bowling center and bar in the village of Palmyra, he said. George Polisse Jr. said he came upon the crash while walking to his home on Division Street a short while later, though he said much of it is a blur because of the shock.
"The truck was wadded up pretty good," said Polisse, 21.
Hours after the crash, several relatives of the victim went to the site and put up a makeshift memorial of flowers and personal mementos. In addition to her brother, Ms. Polisse is survived by her parents, George and Cindy Polisse, and many other relatives and friends, as well as a beloved pet dog, her brother said.
Ms. Polisse had worked on and off for several years for Villager Construction, along with her mother. The two women became well known in Palmyra during a massive reconstruction project on Route 31 several years ago, as they worked as the traffic flaggers, ushering vehicles around the construction.
"Everyone loved them," George Polisse Jr. said. "They always kept the traffic flowing real good."
He wants his sister to be remembered not for the horrific way she died, but for the bubbly person she was.
"She was always happy, smiling," George Polisse Jr. said. "She was the go-lucky type."
George Polisse Jr. said his family is still very much in shock, but has been comforted by friends.
"They've been there so much," he said. "I've just literally been walking around in circles. ... It's tough. I still don't think it's real."