Police Find Evidence of Cocaine, Alcohol in Driver Involved in Fatal 3-Car Crash

The Placentia man involved in a three-car collision that fatally injured a woman and killed her unborn baby showed evidence of alcohol and cocaine use, Brea police said Tuesday.

Sgt. Jeff Keyworth said police plan to seek criminal charges against the man, 25-year-old Scott W. Johnson, through the district attorney’s office on Wednesday.

Johnson, who suffered major injuries in the Saturday crash, was reported in stable but serious condition Tuesday in the intensive-care unit of Placentia Linda Community Hospital.

Police have said that Johnson swerved into the wrong lane and collided with a car driven by Yorba Linda resident Patrice Marie Liebelt, who was seven months pregnant.

Seen Driving Erratically

Keyworth said police would base their complaint on witnesses who saw Johnson driving erratically seconds before the collision and on blood and urine tests administered after the crash. He said he could not specify the amount of drugs and alcohol found in Johnson’s system. The accident occurred at 3:30 p.m. Saturday as Liebelt and her family were driving home to Yorba Linda, eastbound on Yorba Linda Boulevard near Casa Loma Circle.

Just before the collision, witnesses told police, they saw Johnson’s car go off the road and hit a street barricade, Keyworth said.

Johnson, who was driving west in a Toyota, swerved and then veered into the opposite lane, striking the Bronco driven by Liebelt, the witnesses said. The Bronco bounced into the air and landed on top of a third car, a Chevrolet driven by Carmen Hernandez Martinez, who also was traveling east, police said.

4 People Left Hospitalized

Taken to UCI Medical Center, Liebelt died Monday. Her unborn child had died earlier. The accident left four other people hospitalized.

Martinez, 45, was in critical condition Tuesday at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo suffering from a severe head injury, a hospital official said. Her passenger, Craig Raczek, 9, was also injured but was discharged from UCI Medical Center on Sunday, officials said.

Liebelt’s husband, Christopher, and their 5-year-old daughter, Leslie, also were hospitalized, but their conditions have improved, officials at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier said Tuesday.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles said Tuesday that Johnson had had two previous drunk-driving convictions--in 1980 and 1981.