VENTURA : Acquittal Blocks New Trial on Deaths

In a decision that caught prosecutors by surprise, a judge ruled Friday that double-jeopardy laws protect Diane Mannes from being tried on any charges related to the drunken-driving deaths of three young men on the Conejo Grade almost four years ago.

Superior Court Judge James M. McNally ruled that another judge’s acquittal of Mannes, 38, on murder charges means she cannot be tried on any other charges related to the deaths. Prosecutors had sought to try Mannes on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter.

McNally’s ruling was the latest in a series of judicial decisions that has kept the Mannes case in state and federal appellate courts for more than three years. Less than an hour after McNally ruled, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said he would appeal the latest decision.

Mannes’ responsibility for the deaths of the three young men and serious injuries to two others has never been in dispute. She offered to plead guilty to manslaughter repeatedly after the accident, but prosecutors pressed for a murder conviction, citing Mannes’ previous arrests for drunken driving.

Mannes was convicted in November, 1989, of drunken driving and served two years in prison. When the jury deadlocked on the murder counts, now-retired Superior Court Judge Robert Soares dismissed the charges and made statements that federal courts later construed as an acquittal. Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case, thereby barring prosecutors from seeking to retry Mannes on murder charges.

The district attorney’s office intended to try Mannes on the manslaughter charges, but the public defender’s office opposed it.

Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn said after McNally’s ruling that prosecutors had only themselves to blame.

“They were too set on their goal of murder,” Quinn said. “They didn’t pay enough attention to hedging their bets.”

Bradbury said he still is convinced this is a murder case, and he criticized Soares for sabotaging the prosecution’s case.

“The reason we’re here today is because of the loose lips of the judge, a judge who was not competent when he made his ruling,” Bradbury said.

Present in court for McNally’s ruling was Linda Oxenreider, mother of one of the boys who was killed. A tearful Oxenreider said she plans to hit the talk-show circuit to make Mannes pay for what she did.

“The law has so many quirks, and it got it all tangled up,” she said. “If they won’t imprison her in prison, I’ll do it myself by letting everybody know what she did.”