Police Say ‘Deadhead’ on LSD Caused Fatal Crash

Deadheads, those tie-died devotees of freedom and self-expression, call their favorite rock group, the Grateful Dead, a purveyor of peace, love and understanding.

But, for the second time in five months in the Los Angeles area, authorities said Monday, the drug culture that surrounds the Bay Area-based band’s concerts has led to untimely death.

A young woman who allegedly took LSD outside a Grateful Dead concert Saturday night at Cal State Dominguez Hills was later arrested in Manhattan Beach, where police say she ran a red light and broad-sided another car, killing a pregnant woman and her fetus.

Heather Tolles, 19, of South Pasadena, is expected to be charged today with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Laura Obele, 26, and the child she was expecting later this month, Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Dave Ferguson said. Tolles, who was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail, will also be charged with driving under the influence of a narcotic and seriously injuring another woman, who was hit as she sat on a bus bench, Ferguson said.

Witnesses told police that Tolles came to the campus with three friends. The four either could not get tickets or chose not to enter the 2 p.m. concert, but Tolles and a 20-year-old girlfriend were seen taking LSD in the parking lot outside, Ferguson said.

The two women then drove toward Manhattan Beach, stopping to drop off the two young men who had accompanied them.

Tolles began driving erratically, running several stop signs and speeding at up to 50 miles an hour on crowded downtown streets, Ferguson said. The teen-ager refused to stop when a police car turned on its lights and siren.

She was driving north on Highland Avenue when she ran the red light at Manhattan Beach Boulevard and rammed Obele’s car, Ferguson said. Obele’s car careened into a bus bench, injuring Elena Duarte of Palo Alto, who suffered a broken leg and a deep gash.

Obele and her fetus were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Tolles was not hurt. Her passenger suffered minor injuries.

Tolles’ father and the family’s attorney declined comment.

Last Dec. 10, during the Grateful Dead’s last stop in the Los Angeles area, a 19-year-old student from UC Santa Barbara died from a chokehold administered by Inglewood police.

An autopsy concluded that multiple bruises and acute LSD intoxication also contributed to the death of Patrick Shanahan, who had a run-in with officers outside the Great Western Forum.

Shanahan’s family blamed the death on excessive force by police. But officers said the teen-ager behaved strangely and then resisted arrest.

Following that incident, the Grateful Dead postponed a February return to the Forum to give authorities time to plan security.

The band was also not invited back to Irvine Meadows this spring, where it had played since 1983, after 91 arrests and traffic tie-ups that accompanied three concerts last year at the Orange County outdoor amphitheater. Grateful Dead supporters blamed an air show at nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for much of the traffic problems.

Publicist Dennis McNally said Monday that the band and its fans should not be held responsible for unfortunate accidents like Obele’s death.

“It certainly has become convenient to attribute wrongdoing to this audience,” McNally said. “If someone died in a car accident, I can only express my sympathy. It’s horrible.”

McNally said Deadheads, the group’s almost religious followers, are responsible and nonviolent. He blamed some of the recent problems on a handful of people “who are vaguely interested, or come for a short time” to concerts for the drugs and “carnival-like atmosphere.”

The band has tried to discourage these gatherings, McNally said, by prohibiting the once-ubiquitous campers and vendors who followed the band and by discouraging those without tickets from attending. “The Grateful Dead is not a drug act, it is a music act,” he said. “If there are people out there who are deluded about that, we don’t want them there.”

Most of the nearly 70,000 fans who attended the two concerts at the soccer field on the Dominguez Hills campus in Carson were “good and pleasant,” McNally said.

University officials and sheriff’s deputies said there were more than 50 drug-related arrests, many for possession of hallucinogens like LSD, but no serious crimes.

University officials said they will review reports about the concert and fatal crash before inviting the Grateful Dead back.

Times staff writer Andrea Ford contributed to this story.