Left: Sarah Clasen in court (via KOMO). Right: Clasen (Washington State Police).
An off-duty officer from Washington State allegedly struck and killed a motorcycle rider in a drunken crash as she was reportedly picking up pizza.
Sarah Clasen, who works as a public information officer for the Washington State Patrol, has been charged with vehicular homicide following a tragic incident that resulted in the death of Jhoser Sanchez, a 20-year-old individual, according to law enforcement authorities.
The fatal collision occurred on Saturday night at the intersection of State Route 240 and Village Parkway in Richland, located over 200 miles southeast of Seattle. Clasen was driving westbound on SR-240 in her SUV, heading home at around 7:30 p.m. when she attempted to make a left turn onto Village Parkway. Unfortunately, Sanchez was traveling east on SR-240 and was nearing the intersection when Clasen turned left, leading to the collision involving his motorcycle.
Police first responded to the scene at 7:39 p.m. where officers saw lifesaving measures being administered to Sanchez. He died at a hospital.
The Washington State Patrol (WSP) initially took on the investigation of the crash. However, once it was revealed that the driver involved was Clasen, an off-duty WSP trooper, the case was handed over to the Richland Police Department to ensure transparency and objectivity, as stated by officials in a press release.
“During the investigation, RPD officers identified several inconsistencies in Clasen’s account of the incident,” police said.
Police said they quickly determined Clasen was impaired at the time of the crash, saying she had slurred speech, disorganized statements, and glassy eyes. She also declined to complete field sobriety and breath tests, police said.
An affidavit obtained by the Tri-City Herald described the “motorcycle was almost completely under the front of her vehicle as it rested on the side of the highway.”
Clasen “had an odor of intoxicants coming from her person,” Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Eisinger said, according to CBS and Telemundo affiliate KIRO.
The affidavit included some of her alleged statements to police. She allegedly had picked up a pizza from Domino’s when she crashed. She reportedly said she noticed a single light and thought it might be a car with one headlight and that the motorcyclist was “definitely going faster than the posted speed limit,” according to the affidavit.
When she refused a breath test, the 14-year veteran of the WSP and a public information officer, allegedly told the officer she “knows how this works.”
Clasen’s defense attorney, Scott Johnson, told the Herald his client is familiar with the intersection where the crash happened, and that Sanchez was speeding. He also said his client immediately performed CPR on him, a detail he said was left out of the affidavit.
“She knew to look to the side to gauge to make the turn,” Johnson said in court on Monday, the Herald reported. “And had that motorcycle not been speeding that turn could have been, and would have been successfully executed.”
Clasen was booked into the Benton County Jail on a 72-hour hold and released on her own recognizance. A blood alcohol concentration sample is pending analysis.
Clasen is set to appear in court on March 12.
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