Freitas manslaughter trial set
Kenneth Walter Freitas will go on trial June 22,
a judge ruled this week.
Freitas, 33, son of longtime San Luis Obispo County tax assessor Frank
Freitas, is charged with vehicular manslaughter in the Sept. 7, 2002,
death of Sarah Scruggs.
Scruggs, 17, was walking in a crosswalk at the corner of Fifth Street and Grand Avenue in Grover Beach with a friend, Jennifer Fidel, also 17, when a late-model Chevrolet Tahoe SUV driven by Freitas struck them. Fidel escaped serious injury, but Scruggs died four days later at a local hospital.
Superior Court Judge Dodie Harman set the date for Freitas’ trial after she issued a ruling denying a defense motion regarding evidence. She will hear further testimony on the matter one week before the trial begins, at a final pretrial hearing.
“We have waited a long time for this,” said Elizabeth Scruggs, Sarah’s mother. “Unfortunately, nothing we can do will change things, or make it any better. So my husband and I have very mixed feelings. But I am glad the process is going forward.”
According to allegations contained in court papers filed by Ilan Funke-Bilu, Freitas’ lawyer, blood samples from the two teenagers should have been saved by the hospital, but were not. Funke-Bilu asked Harman to reprimand the prosecution for not requiring the blood samples to be maintained as evidence. She declined to do so.
The blood samples were taken from the youngsters during routine examinations to avoid administering conflicting medication and were not intended for evidence, according to documents. The hospital followed its own procedures and disposed of the samples.
Funke-Bilu’s court brief alleged Scruggs’ blood tested positive for methamphetamine and Fidel admitted to smoking meth two days prior to the fatal incident. But hospital records apparently make no mention of amounts of the drug present in the girls’ systems.
It will be impossible to “determine the extent to which the victims would be able to perceive danger, exercise due care, and accurately recall events,” according to Funke-Bilu.
Witnesses told Grover Beach police that Freitas failed to yield at a darkened crosswalk that was occupied by the two girls. At least one witness said another automobile had already stopped to allow the girls to cross. Freitas stopped after the collision, disembarked, and was heard to say, “Oh, my God!”
Prosecutors held the results of the investigation for six months before relinquishing the case to the California Attorney General, citing a potential conflict of interest because of the association of the senior Freitas and other officials in the two county departments.
When the state agency eventually declined to prosecute, District Attorney Gerald Shea — with scant hours remaining before expiration of a statute of limitation on the charge — decided to pursue the case and filed the single charge of vehicular manslaughter.
Funke-Bilu failed earlier this year with a motion to disqualify the entire San Luis Obispo County District Attorneys’ Office on the basis of a conflict of interest. Harman said at the time she thought a fair hearing of the case was possible in this county.
Shortly after the charge was filed, Frank Freitas issued a lengthy defense of his son which refuted assertions made by investigators and the victim’s parents, Tom and Elizabeth Scruggs.
The younger Freitas had previously been cited for two road rage incidents, and numerous other vehicle code violations. He served six months in county jail for one of the road rage cases.
Neither Freitas has since commented on the pending case. ³
— Daniel Blackburn
Disgraced police chief still collecting check
Atascadero City Manager Wade McKinney said Wednesday he has not yet made a decision on the fate of Police Chief Dennis Hegwood, who remains on paid administrative leave after confronting rape allegations filed by a local woman.
Hegwood, 53, was accused by the wife of an associate of sexually assaulting her while she was in an intoxicated state during a late-afternoon encounter earlier this year.
Following investigations by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office, Hegwood was cleared of the criminal charges.
He announced his “retirement” during the two probes, but returned to work following prosecutors’ announcement that they found “insufficient evidence” to prosecute.
McKinney then placed Hegwood on administrative leave. That is the current situation, said McKinney, acknowledging that Hegwood is continuing to receive his $109,000 annual salary.
McKinney brusquely said, “I don’t know,” when asked if Hegwood will remain on the city’s payroll until July 1, when substantially increased retirement benefits become effective.
And the city boss replied, “I’m not sure,” when asked if Hegwood will return to his post before retirement.
More Diablo appeals and meetings
Mothers For Peace has taken one more step in its fight against the Diablo Nuclear Power plant.
The group and the local chapter of the Sierra Club on June 2 appealed the Coastal Commission’s license to allow PG&E to build an on-site spent radioactive fuel storage facility.
Mothers For Peace’s Rochelle Becker said the appeal focuses on two areas: Seismic issues and why the on-site storage should only be built when there’s a permanent off-site storage site and all transport issues have been resolved.
“Until then, it’s just one more promise when none of the other promises have been fulfilled,” she said.
A few weeks before that, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it would hold two meetings in San Luis. At their June 9 “town hall”-style meeting, 12 NRC officials — including four senior executives, along with engineers and spent-fuel facility and security experts — will field questions about the results of inspections following the San Simeon earthquake, security issues, the spent fuel storage installation, and the plant’s safety performance.
“We’re going to stay as late as they need us to. And make sure we’ve got all the individuals there to answer all [the] questions,” said Bill Jones, NRC’s chief of reactor projects for this area.
Jones said the meeting is a follow-up of a Feb. 4 meeting on the earthquake’s affects on the plant. As of the latest inspections, the temblor did not damage the plant but did damage almost half of the local emergency warning sirens. Critics of the NRC also contend that the February meeting did not address the local security questions.
The second meeting on June 10 is a regularly scheduled meeting for NRC and Diablo officials to discuss the last year’s safety performance. NRC officials will also answer questions from the public.
The June 9 meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 333 Madonna Road, in San Luis Obispo. The June 10 meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the PG&E Community Center, 6588 Ontario Road, in San Luis Obispo. The NRC also plans to broadcast both meetings on the San Luis Obispo County government cable access channel.³
What’s News is compiled by News Editor Daniel Blackburn and
Staff Writer Abraham Hyatt from local and other news sources.
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