The lawyer for a woman being retried in a 2013 car crash that seriously injured a Battle Ground teen says the prosecution can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt his client was driving under the influence of methamphetamine at the time.
Shaun C. Johnson’s new vehicular assault trial started Monday in Clark County Superior Court. But attorneys didn’t get to opening statements until Tuesday morning following a lengthy jury selection process.
Johnson, 50, of Amboy was previously convicted in the case and sentenced to three years in prison in spring 2015. A jury found she was under the influence when she struck then-16-year-old Justin Carey as he waited for the school bus alongside Northeast 82nd Avenue in Battle Ground. Carey’s injuries later led to the amputation of his right leg.
However, a state appeals court in July overturned her convictions for vehicular assault and methamphetamine possession after finding that the Clark County sheriff’s deputy who found the drug in her purse had searched it illegally. The prosecution had used the methamphetamine as evidence in her first trial to prove she was under the influence.
The appeals court ruled that the drug evidence was erroneously allowed during Johnson’s trial.
On the morning of June 10, 2013, Carey — a student at Battle Ground High School at the time — was waiting at his school bus stop.
Johnson was driving south on Northeast 82nd Avenue shortly after 7 a.m., and her 2006 Nissan Altima veered off the road near the intersection of 82nd and Northeast 289th Street and struck Carey. The impact flung him about 80 feet into bushes, and fractured both of his legs, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu said.
Johnson was treated for a broken arm. But first responders didn’t know she had hit someone with her car. A tow truck driver found Carey about 90 minutes later lying in the bushes.
Her defense attorney, Shon Bogar, said the crash occurred after she leaned down to pick up a lit cigarette she dropped. She didn’t know Carey was there.
A detective who interviewed Johnson at the hospital picked up on clues that she was under the influence and said her behavior didn’t match what would be expected of someone on pain medication, Vu argued.
However, Bogar argued that the deputy who first responded to the crash didn’t initiate a DUI investigation, and the crash didn’t turn into a criminal case until after Carey was discovered. He also said that the detective who specializes in drug detection did not conclude that Johnson was under the influence of methamphetamine.
Vu said a sample of Johnson’s blood taken for testing was later found positive for methamphetamine.
