SOMIS : Judge Rules Rights Were Not Denied

A Somis woman charged in the 1989 drunken driving deaths of three young men was not denied her right to a speedy trial while federal courts were deciding whether she could be retried for murder, a judge ruled Friday.

However, other legal issues must be resolved in the case against Diane Helen Mannes before her scheduled Feb. 22 trial date. Superior Court Judge James M. McNally has scheduled further hearings for Feb. 19.

Mannes, 38, was tried for murder shortly after the accident on the Conejo Grade in Camarillo that resulted in the deaths of three young men and the injury of two others. The jury convicted Mannes of injuring the two surviving victims while driving drunk, but the panel deadlocked on the three murder charges.

A judge dismissed the murder counts and the case was put on hold for three years while defense attorneys argued before several courts that retrying Mannes for murder would be double jeopardy.

Two federal courts barred a second murder trial after ruling that the trial judge’s action constituted an acquittal. Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Prosecutors intend to retry Mannes on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter. Defense attorneys argued this week that Mannes was denied her right to a speedy trial because prosecutors did not obtain a stay of the Superior Court proceedings while they took the case to the Supreme Court.

McNally ruled on technical grounds that a stay was in place until Jan. 21. Mannes must be brought to trial within 60 days of that date, McNally ruled.

Mannes served a four-year prison sentence, which was shortened for good behavior, for the drunken driving conviction.