Home Detention Ended; Jail Ordered in Death

A 19-year-old Lakeside woman who served 31 days in jail after driving drunk and killing a bicyclist was ordered Wednesday to return immediately to jail by a judge who said it was never his intention that she be admitted to an electronic-surveillance program.

“I will put into effect what I had intended initially,” San Diego Municipal Judge Terry Knoepp said. “The home detention (program) is inappropriate in this case, and that’s what I meant at the time we entered the order.”

Knoepp’s ruling came after a 4 1/2-hour court hearing in which the state attorney general’s office sought to return Renee Reid, the daughter of a district attorney’s investigator, to jail, arguing that the killing of a 34-year-old man last July deserved a stiffer punishment.

“The message sent in this case . . . is that if you come from a good family and your dad perhaps works for the district attorney’s office, you can get released and spend time in the comfort of your own home,” said Gary Schons, the senior assistant attorney general who helped prosecute the case. “That’s no message.”

Reid will probably surrender to sheriff’s authorities this morning and serve out the balance of her five-month term. She has served a month in jail, two months under electronic surveillance and, with credits for being a good inmate, is scheduled to complete her sentence in September. However, she will be out of jail for some period while she undergoes medical treatment and must make up that time.

Her attorney, Lee C. Witham, called the ruling devastating because she now holds a certain celebrity status and will attract the unwanted attention of other inmates.

The ruling came in the same courtroom where Knoepp first sentenced Reid last November to a year in jail, five years probation and a $1,500 fine in the death of Phil Cramer.

Cramer’s friends and family broke out in broad smiles and made feeble attempts at congratulating each other when the judge announced his decision.

“It’s the best we can hope for,” said John Drogitis, Cramer’s best friend who was biking next to him when he was hit. “I feel a lot better, big-time. I’d feel even better if she was put back for a longer amount of time.”

On an evening last July, Reid’s speeding car crashed into Cramer, who had been bicycling alongside Drogitis on a Lakeside frontage road.

The car, spinning sideways at 70 m.p.h. on a curve designed for 40 m.p.h., missed Drogitis but knocked Cramer into the middle of adjoining Interstate 8.

Reid was the only person in the car. Her jaw was crushed in the crash and she needs extensive surgery. Although sentenced last November, she was given until Jan. 17 to begin her term because of the holidays and medical treatment.

Sheriff’s Department officials decided days into her sentence that she would make a good candidate for the home surveillance program, where she could wear an electronic transmitter strapped to her ankle that notifies the Sheriff’s Department if she moves 50 yards out of range. She started the program Feb. 18 and has not violated its provisions.

During Wednesday’s hearing, corrections officials said Reid did not receive preferential treatment because her father is a senior investigator for the district attorney’s office, nor was her placement in the program out of the ordinary.

But it has been learned that a sheriff’s captain made the decision on her placement, contrary to normal procedure. Male convicts, under the jurisdiction of the county Probation Department, are required to serve at last half their sentences before they are considered for the home surveillance program.