Nashville DA recuses from Emily Dollarhide fatal crash review
The district attorney's office will not determine whether to seek charges against the husband of a woman killed in a September collision.
By Lauren Foster ·
Families in Nashville are facing a procedural hurdle in a fatal car crash case because the local prosecutor has removed itself from the review process. The Nashville District Attorney’s Office announced it will not decide if charges should be filed against Carl Dollarhide, the driver in the September incident that killed his wife.
The recusal leaves the determination of criminal liability to another authority, though officials have not yet specified which office will assume the role. The decision removes the immediate question of whether the DA’s team will pursue a case based on the available evidence.
Emily Dollarhide, 35, was a passenger in a Ford Mustang driven by her husband when it crashed on Ashland City Highway on September 19. Metro Nashville Police Department records indicate she suffered critical injuries and died one week after the accident.
Police reported the Mustang was traveling at high speed before striking a Dodge Ram pickup truck that was making a U-turn. The preliminary investigation found no signs of intoxication among the drivers at the scene.
Carl Dollarhide has a prior history with vehicle-related incidents. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault after a crash that killed a mother and paralyzed her ten-month-old daughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison and eight years of probation for that case.
The current investigation into the September crash remains ongoing, with the recusal of the DA’s office creating a gap in the expected prosecution timeline.
