Woman Goes on Trial for 2nd Time in Fatal Drunk-Driving Crash

Joan Kathryn Wilkoff does not deny that she had too much to drink Aug. 18, 1983, when she was driving west on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. She also does not deny that she should not have left the scene after she was involved in a six-car smashup that left one person dead and six others injured.

What she does deny, despite numerous witnesses’ statements to the contrary, is that she caused the accident.

Wilkoff, 42, of Stanton was back in Orange County Superior Court this week for her second trial on charges of vehicular manslaughter, felony drunk driving and driving under the influence.

The case has already established legal precedent. Wilkoff originally was charged with vehicular manslaughter, six counts of felony drunk driving and six counts of driving under the influence. Each of the six counts of felony drunk driving and each of the six counts of driving under the influence represented one of the injury victims.

Last year, the state Supreme Court reduced the number of charges against her and ruled for the first time that no one could be charged with multiple felony drunk driving counts in a single incident.

First Jury Deadlocked

At her first trial, shortly after that ruling, Superior Court Judge Phillip E. Cox declared a mistrial after the jurors deadlocked, 7 to 5, in favor of finding her guilty on three of four counts. They did find her guilty of a misdemeanor count for leaving the scene of an accident. Sentencing on that count is pending, and the jurors in the second trial are unaware of that conviction.

Although prosecutors seldom seek a conviction a second time after a mistrial with such a widely split jury, Deputy Dist. Atty. James J. Mulgrew said that this is a special case.

At the first trial, Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley, representing Wilkoff, called on a traffic expert who reconstructed the scene for the jurors and told them that the accident could not have occurred the way prosecution witnesses said it did.

“This time we have our own expert,” Mulgrew said.

Wilkoff, an executive secretary, said in a brief interview outside the courtroom in Westminster this week that the 3 1/2 years since the collision have been traumatic.

“You go to work, and you try to act normal when that’s not how you feel at all,” she said. “You try to be cheerful and pleasant when you’re really down and miserable.”

Wilkoff said she has “tremendous feelings of sympathy” for the family of the victim, 17-year-old Michelle Salle.

Wilkoff said that her son, who is 22, had just turned 19 when the accident happened.

“He was near Michelle’s age. I know how I would feel if anything like this had happened to him,” she said.

But she added that she did not feel responsible for the girl’s death because she did not cause the accident.

On the day of the accident, Wilkoff was westbound on Pacific Coast Highway near Magnolia Street about 12:45 a.m. when her car moved to the right shoulder. As the car returned to the road, it collided with the car that had been in front of hers, driven by Michelle Salle. The collision caused a chain-reaction smashup that involved four other vehicles.

Moved to Side of Road

Several witnesses said that Wilkoff moved to the shoulder in an attempt to pass the car in front of her and cut back too soon. Wilkoff declined to offer any details and did not testify at her first trial. But Kelley, her defense attorney, says that the driver behind Wilkoff caused the accident by forcing her off the road.

It was the driver behind Wilkoff who saw her leave the scene and followed her to the parking lot of Huntington Beach State Park. He then summoned park rangers.

Kelley says that Wilkoff left the scene of the accident because she was so distraught over what had happened. But prosecutors say it is proof of her guilt.

High Blood-Alcohol Level

The defense attorney acknowledges that his client’s argument is damaged by the fact that her blood-alcohol content was .19% when she was arrested, which is almost double the level at which one is presumed to be under the influence.

But Kelley says that Wilkoff’s drinking had nothing to do with the accident. “She didn’t do anything worse than any of us have done on occasion, when we got into a car after having too much to drink,” he said.

Wilkoff, who has no prior criminal record, faces a possible four years and four months in prison if convicted, according to the lawyers involved in the case.