Report on officer’s fatal crash: Failure to yield, speed

The death of Laguna Beach Police Officer Jon Coutchie in a collision last year was caused by the other driver’s failure to yield and the motorcycle officer’s speed, according to a report by California Highway Patrol investigators.

However, the Orange County district attorney’s office said the evidence “does not support the filing of criminal charges” against the driver, a 20-year-old Irvine resident.

The CHP report said the man did not yield to oncoming traffic as he was turning in his pickup left from South Coast Highway onto Cleo Street about 11:45 p.m. Sept. 21, 2013. Coutchie, riding a department-issued motorcycle, hit the truck and died at the scene.

“An associated factor in the cause of this collision was Officer Coutchie’s speed,” according to the CHP’s independent report, which was reviewed by the Laguna Beach Police Department.

The district attorney’s office, at the department’s request, reviewed the CHP’s investigation to determine whether charges should be filed against the truck driver.

“Based upon a thorough review of all of the evidence provided to and obtained by the [district attorney’s office] and pursuant to legal principles, it is our legal opinion that the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges,” Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Walker wrote in a letter.

Coutchie is the second Laguna Beach police officer to die while on duty. A gunman trying to escape department headquarters shot and killed Officer Gordon French in February 1953.

The city will dedicate a sculpture titled “Eternal Legacy,” by artists Gerard Stripling and Michele Taylor, that honors Coutchie and French at 5 p.m. Sept. 21 outside department headquarters along Loma Terrace.

—Bryce Alderton

Twitter: @AldertonBryce