Driving Charge Filed Against Deputy D.A. : Crime: She allegedly cut off a car and hit a Saddleback College student as she pulled into a parking spot where he stood, ignoring his motions to stop.

A deputy district attorney has been charged with reckless driving after allegedly cutting off a car and hitting a Saddleback College student who was standing in front of an open parking space.

Sheriff’s deputies initially recommended a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon against Kelly W. MacEachern, 39, after the victim said MacEachern had looked him straight in the eye before moving forward. A crime report of the incident listed MacEachern’s apparent motive as “anger.”

But the charge was filed as a misdemeanor when the district attorney’s office, realizing it had a conflict because it could not prosecute one of its own, referred the matter to the state attorney general’s office in San Diego.

State prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to prove MacEachern intended to harm John Redmond Stevens, 21, a Saddleback College biology major.

Stevens, who was on crutches for a week and a half after the July 20 accident in a campus lot, said he made it clear to investigators that MacEachern should have been charged with a serious crime because he believed she hit him intentionally.

“They should have placed her in a patrol car at the scene and put her away,” he said. “From looking at her face, I know she was trying to hit me. It was intentional.”

Stevens said that just before the incident, he had been waiting at least 10 minutes for a parking space in a line of cars when two spots suddenly came open at once.

He took one for himself and then happened to walk past the second open spot. Seeing the unoccupied space, he signaled for a car that had been waiting in line behind him to take the spot.

At that very moment, however, MacEachern’s van pulled alongside the car and cut it off, Stevens said. MacEachern then drove into the empty space, even though he was standing in the way and motioning for her to stop, he said.

He was knocked onto the hood and into MacEachern’s windshield, injuring his right knee in the process, Stevens said.

He said he was still in shock when he opened the door to MacEachern’s car and yelled that he had been hit. MacEachern, he said, finished parking, gathered up her children and belongings, stepped out of the van and began to walk toward the campus swimming pool as if nothing had happened.

“I asked her what her name was and she said: ‘I don’t have to tell you that,’ ” he said.

When the deputies arrived, Stevens said, he directed them to the pool area. When deputies returned to the parking lot with MacEachern, she accused Stevens of assaulting her.

Renee Susan Thomas of Laguna Niguel, who was driving the car waiting for the space, confirmed that Stevens gestured for MacEachern to stop but she kept going, even after she hit him and he was hanging onto her car. Thomas said she confronted MacEachern, who ignored her and went to the pool.

A second witness, Carine Gorsky, also of Laguna Niguel, said MacEachern intentionally hit Stevens.

When deputies interviewed MacEachern, she asked if they were going to read her the Miranda rights.

MacEachern told the deputies that she had been searching for a parking space, saw Stevens walk past an empty spot and, when she pulled in, she heard a bang.

Stevens kicked her van, opened her door twice and yelled something, she said.

MacEachern told deputies she was concerned for her children’s safety and thought Stevens might grab someone in the car. She also suggested that Stevens had already passed the empty space and may have jumped in front of her van.

“There’s a fine line between me running into him and him jumping in front of my van,” police quoted MacEachern as saying.

She also told deputies that while she initially believed Stevens was trying to harm her children, she quickly realized that he was not dangerous and she felt secure enough to proceed to the pool area.

MacEachern, a deputy district attorney since July, 1981, who is currently assigned to the family support division, declined to discuss the incident. Maurice L. Evans, chief assistant district attorney, said his office would have no comment.

But MacEachern’s husband, Neil, said Wednesday that Stevens jumped in front of his wife’s van and “terrorized my family” because she took someone’s parking spot. If Stevens hurt his knee, Neil MacEachern said, it was because he slammed it against the van.

Although Stevens has questioned the decision to charge MacEachern with a misdemeanor when sheriff’s deputies had recommended a felony, the head prosecutor in the state attorney general’s office in San Diego said there was no favorable treatment given.

“There was no evidence that she intended to commit assault,” said Gary W. Schons, senior assistant attorney general. “We have to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt and the evidence was just not there.”

Conviction of misdemeanor reckless driving can result in a sentence of between five and 90 days in county jail and a fine ranging from $145 to $1,000. It is more likely, however, that MacEachern, as a first-time offender, would receive probation if convicted.

Deputy Ron Kennedy, one of the officials at the scene, said a change in the recommended charge is not unusual.

“It’s pretty rare when we get the same filing as what it appears to us,” he said. “It either gets upgraded or downgraded. We don’t get too worked up over it.”