Court says drunken driver didn't cause accident

A Richland woman initially accused of seriously injuring a motorcyclist in a 2007 car crash in Kennewick must serve 24 hours behind bars for driving drunk.

Charges against Jennifer Ann Mullen, 28, were reduced from vehicular assault after further investigation by a defense expert and a Kennewick police officer found no evidence that she was at fault for the collision.

Mullen fought back tears Thursday as she told a Benton County Superior Court judge she is proud of herself for the changes she's made in her life since that arrest.

She has a 16-month-old child, is now raising her husband's 6-year-old daughter and has switched careers to become a radiological control technician in the Hanford area.

"The last 3 1/2 years have been a huge struggle, and I think it was good for me," Mullen said. "I've become a totally different person."

The night that Mullen was found to be driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly two times the legal limit led to her first and only encounter with the criminal justice system, and for that Judge Bruce Spanner rejected a prosecutor's recommendation that she be ordered to serve a year in jail.

The request by Deputy Prosecutor Megan Bredeweg allowed for Mullen to do the time on work release, so she would spend the night in jail and be released during the day to go to work.

However, Spanner noted that Mullen shouldn't be treated any differently than other defendants with their first conviction for driving under the influence, a gross misdemeanor.

"It is pretty clear here, were there not an accident, we would be talking one day in jail ...," Spanner said. "Ultimately we should be punished for our own misconduct, that which we have caused, and not which we didn't cause."

Initial court documents filed in the case said on May 8, 2007, Mullen was northbound on Edison Street just past the 10th Avenue intersection when her car struck motorcyclist Brian Brown. He suffered wrist, leg and pelvic injuries.

Mullen's blood-alcohol level at the time was 0.14 percent, documents said. The legal limit to drive in Washington is 0.08 percent.

Bredeweg, in court documents, said Mullen was charged with the vehicular assault "after the initial scene analysis concluded that the defendant was turning left from the right lane of two lanes in order to make a U turn across a double yellow line."

Officer Mike Gaines had then determined that Brown's motorcycle was perpendicular to Mullen's car.

Defense attorney Christopher Swaby later hired Richard Chapman of Traffic Collision Analysis to reconstruct the crash. Chapman looked at "the spray pattern of fluids from the motorcycle," the damage to both the car and the motorcycle and where they both came to a stop, and "concluded that (Mullen) did not cause the collision, and that she would not have been able to avoid it," Bredeweg wrote in court documents.

Gaines was asked to do another reconstruction of the crash scene and changed his previous opinion, finding that Mullen's car was "fully or almost fully in the left lane of travel." Gaines' second report found that Mullen "was turning left from the left lane into a driveway when the motorcycle collided with the driver's side at a slight angle to parallel, and was then thrown from the motorcycle," Bredeweg wrote.

Bredeweg then amended the case to a more appropriate charge for the revised findings. "While there is no evidence that (Mullen's) driving contributed to the collision and the victim's substantial bodily harm, the defendant clearly had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.14, well over the legal limit," she said.

Mullen pleaded guilty July 15 to the reduced charge of DUI. Her plea statement said she drove a vehicle within two hours after drinking.

Bredeweg told the court Thursday that while Brown understood the need to amend the charge, he was not in agreement with it.

Brown couldn't attend the sentencing so he sent an e-mail. He says Mullen's intoxication and cell phone use "almost killed me," and that his injuries including constant back pain affected all areas of his life. He also told the court that Mullen is being sentenced lightly and should be sent to jail.

Swaby suggested that the collision should be attributed to Brown, but said that can't be proved. He said Mullen thought she was OK to drive that night, and asked Spanner not to make an example of his client by giving her any more time than the statutory minimum.

Spanner spent several minutes reading letters on Mullen's behalf before agreeing that one day in jail was appropriate with 364 days suspended.

Mullen will be on probation for five years. She was ordered not to drive without a valid driver's license and proof insurance and, if stopped, must agree to a breath test at the request of an officer.

Spanner also told Mullen she must attend a DUI victim's panel, apply for an ignition interlock on her car and undergo an evaluation for substance abuse and follow the recommended treatment.

Mullen has until Sept. 16 to serve the jail time.