Post Date  July 28, 2013 – A device used to monitor a drivers driving habits in order to save them money on Progressive Car Insurance helped clear a Progressive Car Insurance customer of murder. Michael Beard, 28-years old, a resident of Parma Heights, Ohio was facing 15 years to life imprisonment after he was charged of murder, child endangering, and felonious assault due to the death of his 7-month old daughter, Lynniah. The incident transpired on the morning of May 8, 2011. Prosecutors alleged that Beard murdered his own child with a theory that he tried to awaken Lynniah’s mother to have sex and when the latter did not rouse, he allegedly covered Lynniah’s nose to make the baby cry.

Progressive Car Insurance Snap Shot Proves Man Innocent of Murder

However, Beard’s defense attorney, Michael Cheselka presented evidence that will clear his client. The evidence is a record from the Progressive Car Insurance Snapshot car monitoring device used by insured showed that Beard turned off his car at 4:44am on the said date and turned it on three minutes later. Cheselka said that it was in those three minutes that Beard discovered his child was not breathing while in her infant swing and that the father awakened her mother and returned to his car then rushed the infant to the hospital.  It was known that Beard, a trained nurse, used to visit the infant and her mother after his graveyard shift however, that May 8 visit turned out to be a tragic one.  The misunderstanding started  when his client had mistakenly told the police that he found his daughter in a car seat instead of an infant swing. The lawyer said that it was “a mistake under duress.”  On the other hand, a pathologist from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Officer testified that the baby could have suffocated as she slumped down in her infant swing while sleeping.  It has been learned that Beard’s case was the first Progressive car insurance Snapshot device has been used in a criminal trial. Beard was acquitted by the jury early this month.

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