Police Officer Faces Charges in Collision Fatal to 2 Women

In a rare decision to prosecute a police officer for his role in an on-the-job traffic accident, the Orange County district attorney Tuesday filed criminal charges against a Westminster officer in connection with a Christmas Day collision that killed two young women.

Officer Thomas Richard, 23, had been on the Westminster force about 6 months when he responded to another officer’s call for urgent assistance on Christmas morning.

Richard, with lights flashing and siren wailing, sped through an intersection at more than 80 m.p.h. and struck a car driven by Jessica Warren, 19, of Stanton. Both Warren and her passenger, Dawn Hammond, 20, of Costa Mesa, were pronounced dead at the scene.

After an investigation by the California Highway Patrol and district attorney officials, two misdemeanor manslaughter charges were filed against Richard, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Middleton. If convicted, Richard faces up to 1 year in jail on each charge, Middleton said.

Although emergency vehicles are authorized under law to exceed the speed limit, Middleton said the law does not absolve the driver if he does not proceed “with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway.”

But Bruce D. Praet, an attorney representing the city of Westminster, predicted that the charges will have “a terrible chilling effect on all police officers.”

“Why should a police officer make any effort to rush to the scene of an emergency if in the back of his mind he’s thinking that circumstances might put him in a situation where he could be criminally prosecuted for doing his job?” Praet said.

Middleton denied that the prosecution of Richard indicates a policy change at the district attorney’s office. “I’m not trying to send any kind of message.”

But Middleton described the filing of such charges as very unusual, and Praet said he had never heard of such a filing.

The families of the two women have filed claims against the city, Praet said, declining to specify the amount of money sought. Praet said that he will represent Richard in those civil proceedings, but that Richard has hired a private attorney to handle the criminal charges.

Richard will be arraigned in early June, Middleton said.