Woman charged with vehicular homicide and DUI after 2020 crash on campus

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lauren Allison Burke has been arrested on a 2021 warrant charging her with DUI with serious bodily injury and DUI causing death after a 2020 crash on the UF campus that resulted in the death of Dominick Quitoni.

At about 9:02 p.m. on February 2, 2020, a University of Florida Police Department officer responded to a crash in which a vehicle driven by Burke had rear-ended a vehicle that was stationary at a stoplight at the intersection of Gale Lemerand Drive and Museum Road.

The officer reported that Burke had bloodshot, watery eyes and slurred speech and was unsteady on her feet when she got out of her vehicle. She also reportedly admitted that she had been drinking earlier that night.

Burke reportedly refused consent to take a blood sample after she was transported to UF Health Shands, but investigators later sent a subpoena to UF Health to obtain her medical records, along with any observations of medical personnel regarding the level of her impairment.

Her passenger, Dominick Quitoni of Gainesville, was also transported to the hospital and was transferred to hospice care six days later. He was later re-admitted to the hospital and died on March 6, 2020. The District 8 Medical Examiner reportedly listed complications of injuries sustained in the crash as the probable cause of death.

Burke’s address is listed in Washinton, D.C., on the arrest report, and she was arrested at that same address in Washington, D.C., although a court document states that she has lived in Homestead, FL, for the past two years. She has a criminal history in Virginia and North Carolina, including a DUI in North Carolina. Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered her held without bail, pending a hearing on a request from the State Attorney’s Office to hold her without bail until trial.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.