Judge orders Kennewick woman to serve remainder of sentence

A 52-year-old woman whose reckless driving in 2010 killed another Pasco motorist is back in prison after violating the conditions of her community supervision.

Lori Ann Christensen has been ordered by the state Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of her original 7 ½ -year prison sentence.

The Kennewick woman was returned to the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor on April 12, and has a projected release date of Sept. 9, 2018, a department spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Christensen, who already had a lengthy criminal history involving drugs, faces a new charge in Franklin County Superior Court for having methamphetamine in her vehicle.

She missed an April 19 court appearance, and Judge Bruce Spanner issued a no-bail arrest warrant.

Spanner is the same judge who sentenced Christensen in 2012 for the vehicular homicide, noting Christensen’s “lengthy history of substance abuse problems.”

“You’re learning kind of late that there are consequences to what we do,” he said at the time.

Christensen pulled out of the Motel 6 parking lot on Oregon Avenue on Sept. 24, 2010, crossed the double yellow center line and slammed head-on into a car driven by Orlando Abarca-Rivera.

The 35-year-old Abarca-Rivera was the only occupant of the car and was on his way to work. He died at the scene.

Christensen told law enforcement that morning that she was late for work delivering newspapers for her husband, who was an independent contractor for the Tri-City Herald.

She admitted drinking a couple of beers the night before, but firefighters at the scene reported smelling alcohol on her after the 5:30 a.m. wreck.

Christensen initially was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That element of the charge was reduced by prosecutors to reckless driving in exchange for her guilty plea.

Prosecutors recommended the sentence just above the seven years and three months at the bottom of the standard range. They noted at the time that she had a medical condition, but did not give the particulars.

The range was higher for vehicular homicide because Christensen because she already had nine felony convictions for possession or delivery of a controlled substance. Those cases occurred between 1986 and 2005.

Christensen was on community supervision for an earlier conviction when she killed Abarca-Rivera.

It is not clear when Christensen was released from prison. But court documents show that on March 3 of this year, she had an active Department of Corrections warrant for violating community custody.

On that day, two community corrections officers saw Christensen get into a vehicle, so they called Franklin County dispatchers and asked to have Pasco police stop the vehicle on the arrest warrant.

Christensen was arrested and the community corrections officers searched her vehicle as part of her supervision conditions.

A black bag found between the driver and passenger seat held a white substance that tested positive for meth, documents said.

The next day, as the evidence was being processed, a plastic bag with cocaine and five glass pipes with residue allegedly were found.

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Judge orders Kennewick woman to serve remainder of sentence."