Someone posted last week about the death of a cyclist who was run over by a drunk driver while stopped along the wide shoulder of the road. This article will make you mad as hell. Turns out the guy had seven prior arrests and/or convictions for DUI. His brother also owned the bar he was at.
SR man charged in bicyclist’s death convicted in at least 4 earlier cases; '01 crash injured sheriff’s detective
By DEREK J. MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A suspected drunken driver arrested March 28 in connection with a bicyclist’s death has been convicted of driving under the influence in Sonoma County four times since 1983, court records show.
Joseph Lynchard, 72, of Santa Rosa also was arrested three times for DUI in the 1970s, according to sheriff’s records. But because those cases are so old, it’s unknown whether the arrests led to convictions.
Despite that history, the former backhoe operator and truck driver had a valid license when he allegedly swerved in his Ford F-150 pickup and plowed into Kathryn Black, killing the 43-year-old Clearlake woman.
His arrest in that case was his second on Mark West Springs Road in four years and the third in 13 years.
In June 2001, authorities said, Lynchard rammed another Ford pickup into an unmarked Sheriff’s Department car that was stopped on Mark West Springs Road, injuring a detective and totaling the car.
That crash resulted in at least the fourth conviction for Lynchard, but the judge who sentenced him may not have been aware of his record because DUIs back then stayed on a driver’s record for seven years. His last previous conviction was in 1992.
Under a law that went into effect Jan. 1, DUIs now remain on a drivers’ record for 10 years.
On Tuesday, legislation that would prohibit anyone who is convicted of three DUIs from driving again passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
In the 2001 case, the judge ordered Lynchard to spend two days in jail and to pay a $1,428 fine and restricted him to driving to work for three months.
Lynchard also was allowed to enter a drunken-driving program for first-time offenders.
“If this guy came in to court after a 10-year period, I would say it’s more probable that he wouldn’t have been treated any different than a first-time offender, even though you say, ‘I can’t believe that,’ or ‘That’s not right,’” Assistant District Attorney Greg Jacobs said Tuesday.
He said he hadn’t reviewed Lynchard’s history, much of which is buried in court files or on microfiche at the Sheriff’s Department, and said he couldn’t comment specifically on Lynchard’s case. But he said that in general judges are less aware of a defendant’s history than they were in the past.
The county Probation Department no longer makes sentencing recommendations in most misdemeanor cases, as all of Lynchard’s were. That information might have alerted judges to his problems with drinking and driving, Jacobs said.
“In the old days you could handle these guys more directly and with more scrutiny,” he said. “That’s not the way it’s going these days.”
Brian Willits, director of the Probation Department’s adult division, blamed staff cuts for the reduced oversight.
“I think it’s frustrating for the public to take a look back at something like this, and we have a tragedy in the end,” he said.
Lynchard’s attorney, Chris Andrian, has asked for a hearing with the Department of Motor Vehicles, which has the power to suspend Lynchard’s license for up to a year. Such hearings typically are requested to contest a suspension or restriction of a person’s license.
A DMV spokeswoman said the hearing likely will be held next week in San Francisco.
Andrian didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
A Catholic Mass was held Monday for Black, the mother of a 5-year-old girl, who left a relative’s home in Windsor on March 28, telling her husband she was going to bicycle to Clearlake.
The CHP said preliminary evidence shows she was five to six feet from the road and possibly straddling her bike when she was struck. The force of the collision broke both of her legs in multiple places.
Lynchard was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter. He is out on bail while awaiting his arraignment April 19.
At the time of his arrest, Lynchard wore a cap that said “Eddie’s,” in reference to the bar that his brother owns in the Larkfield Shopping Center. The bar is about 2½ miles from Lynchard’s home on Riebli Road.
He had just left Eddie’s, and CHP officers are investigating whether the bar has any liability in the crash.
Records show Eddie’s owner Clair Edward Lynchard, 70, bailed his brother out of jail after the 2001 crash that injured David Iverson, a detective with the Sheriff’s Department.
Iverson recalled Lynchard wearing an Eddie’s cap as well on June 6, 2001, after Lynchard plowed into his unmarked car.
Iverson said he had stopped on Mark West Springs while waiting to turn left into the parking lot of Riebli Elementary School, where he was to pick up his 7-year-old daughter, when he heard screeching tires, followed by a loud blast.
Iverson said he was thrown forward into the steering wheel and then backward into the driver’s seat, which reclined from the force of the crash. Simultaneously, he watched the shattered pieces of the car’s back window pass overhead and pierce the front window, scattering across the dash.
Dazed but not seriously hurt, Iverson said he got out to check on the driver of the pickup that hit him, only to find that Lynchard already had gotten out and was talking to a woman on the side of the road.
Iverson said Lynchard “reeked” of alcohol. Toxicology tests showed Lynchard’s blood-alcohol level was .23, nearly three times the legal limit for driving, according to public records.
Iverson said he was off work for a week recovering from a sore neck and elbow, as well as the emotional trauma.
DUIs that involve injuries can result in felony charges, which can lead to prison sentences. But Lynchard was charged with a misdemeanor.
Jacobs said he doesn’t know why that was the case.
“In defense of the office and the D.A., I wouldn’t be able to tell you why it was done unless I was able to look at the files,” Jacobs said. “If the injuries were bruises or something like that, it’s a possibility that we might not prosecute it as a felony.”
The first-offender DUI program that Lynchard was sentenced to in the 2001 case was to last four months, as opposed to a similar program for second offenders, which at a minimum lasts 18 months and can go as long as 30 months.
Lynchard also completed DUI programs after convictions in 1992 and 1983, records show. He didn’t complete the terms from the 1983 case until two years later, however, after the court “re-referred” him to the program.
Records show he was kicked out of the DUI program on Jan. 18, 2002, for a “sobriety violation.” He was allowed to re-enroll and he completed the terms on April 12, 2002.
It took Lynchard much longer to complete the jail term for his 1992 conviction, which stemmed from another DUI arrest on Mark West Springs Road.
Lynchard pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 60 days. He was ordered to start serving his sentence Nov. 30, 1992, but the date kept getting pushed back as he cited illness and medical appointments.
On Jan. 13, 1993, Judge Cerena Wong granted another extention but noted this was the “last stay.” A bench warrant was issued Feb. 16, 1993, when Lynchard failed to show as promised.
A letter from the Department of Veteran Affairs given to the court May 5, 1993, said Lynchard was in a substance abuse program at a VA hospital in San Francisco from March 30 to April 20.
Lynchard was still on the hook for 39 days in jail, which he was ordered to serve on consecutive weekends in 48-hour shifts. He again failed to show on June 19, 1993, and it couldn’t be determined if he ever completed the sentence.
On Jan. 30, 1999 - eight years after his arrest - Judge Robert Boyd closed the case when Lynchard showed proof that he had attended a VA program.
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