Ex-Prosecutor Convicted in Traffic Death Settles With Victim’s Family for $225,000

The children of an Escondido schoolteacher killed in a 1988 car crash have agreed to accept $225,000 to settle a lawsuit they brought against a former prosecutor who was driving while drunk and was convicted of manslaughter, a lawyer said Friday.

Carol Benson’s three children agreed to the deal Thursday, ending the suit they had filed against Charles Van Dusen, a former San Diego County deputy district attorney now serving a six-year prison term stemming from the Valley Center crash, said the children’s lawyer, Joe B. Cordileone.

The bargain was struck at a special conference conducted by a retired California appellate court judge, Edward T. Butler, Cordileone said.

Van Dusen agreed to pay $75,000 and his insurance companies the remaining $150,000, Cordileone said. Because the former prosecutor ended up paying a full one-third of the settlement, that “indicated he felt some remorse,” Cordileone said.

The children--twins Catherine and Laura, 20, and Michael, 26--probably could have gotten more money if the wrongful-death suit had gone to trial in Vista Superior Court, where it had been filed, Cordileone said. But they agreed to the deal because it appeared to be the “most (money) they would likely recover without great difficulty,” he said.

The crash took place Sept. 2, 1988. Benson, 45, was driving home for lunch on Cole Grade Road in Valley Center when Van Dusen, traveling about 90 m.p.h. in his Corvette, struck her car head-on.

Benson died instantly. Van Dusen received minor injuries. His wife, Susan, a passenger in his car, was not hurt.

At the time of the crash, Van Dusen’s blood-alcohol level measured .20. A level of .10 means a person is legally intoxicated.

A former deputy district attorney in Vista who prosecuted many drunk-driving cases during his career, Van Dusen pleaded guilty in December, 1988, to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Last February, San Diego Municipal Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez sentenced Van Dusen to the six-year prison term, saying Van Dusen had a “longstanding alcohol problem” and had demonstrated an “unwillingness to control or correct” it.

Van Dusen, 38, is serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo, Cordileone said. He is eligible for parole in 1992.

Benson’s children filed their lawsuit last April. Lawyers for Van Dusen and the insurance company did not return phone calls Friday to their offices.