John Jefferson
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, 35, a public information officer for the Washington State Patrol, faces vehicular homicide charges in the death of Jhoser Sanchez, 20, police said.
The crash happened Saturday night at State Route 240 and Village Parkway in Richland, more than 200 miles southeast of Seattle. Clasen had been traveling west on SR-240, returning home around 7:30 p.m. local time in her SUV when she tried to turn left onto Village Parkway. Sanchez was traveling east on SR-240, approaching the intersection, when Clasen turned left in front of 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 assumed responsibility for investigating the crash. But when the driver was identified as Clasen, an off-duty WSP trooper, the case was transferred to Richland Police Department to ensure transparency and impartiality, officials said 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.
The 14-year veteran has been placed on administrative leave, police said.
Clasen is set to appear in court on March 12.
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