Officer Says Road Not Wet Before Crash

NEWPORT BEACH —  A preliminary hearing for a teenager charged with vehicular manslaughter completed its first week without resolution Friday after a police officer surprised a courtroom by suggesting he had proof that water on the road did not cause a sport-utility vehicle packed with high-school teens to spin out and flip.

The testimony was a surprise to lawyers for both sides and the judge hearing the case because it came after experts took the stand all week to debate the role of city sprinklers in the crash that killed one teen and injured several others, including high-school cheerleader Amanda Arthur.

The 18-year-old driver, Jason Rausch, is accused of causing the crash.

The police officer, Newport Beach Traffic Investigator Bruce Burns, testified that he had been told by Police Sgt. James Kaminsky at the scene of the May 23 accident that the city sprinklers came on after the crash and that the sergeant had turned them off.

Defense attorney Jennifer Keller denounced Burns’ testimony as a fabrication, and Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey asked that the hearing be resumed Monday in order to obtain testimony from Kaminsky. At Keller’s request, Dickey also ordered Burns to not talk to Kaminsky about the case.

“No jury is going to believe this in a million years,” Keller said.

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The hearing is being held to decide whether Rausch should stand trial in Superior Court on the felony vehicle manslaughter charge and two charges of reckless driving in connection with the accident that killed 18-year-old classmate Donny Bridgman, the owner of the Chevy Blazer that crashed.

Dickey wanted the hearing completed Friday. Court experts said it is unusual for a preliminary hearing to last more than a week.

“It’s unusual, but it depends so much on the complexity of the charges,” said Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary, assistant presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court. “It’s not routine, but it does happen.”

At Municipal Court in Newport Beach, most preliminary hearings on felony charges are completed in several hours or less, said Ginger Lamar, manager of court services.

But after a full week, when most long cases have turned into a humdrum grind, the hearing for Rausch still packs an emotional punch. There have been at least two physical confrontations, involving shoving and elbow jabbing, between friends of Rausch and television photographers who line up to shoot video each afternoon.

Tears still flow in the gallery. The two sides--relatives and supporters of Rausch on one side and relatives and supporters of Bridgman on the other--still glower occasionally at each other.

Friends of Rausch have been forming a human circle around the former football player and on Thursday, pushed several television photographers lined up to videotape Rausch leaving the courtroom.

Whether Irvine Avenue was wet at the time of the crash has been a key issue in the case and will be at the center of civil lawsuits stemming from the crash.

Rausch’s attorneys contend that faulty sprinklers soaked the roadway, making it slippery and causing the 1989 Blazer to slide out of control and flip. Prosecutors contend the sprinklers were on a timer that didn’t turn them on until after the crash had occurred.