O.C. Doctor Convicted of Murders in ’93 Crash : Trial: Collision killed Mission Viejo couple. Laguna Beach physician was under influence of drugs, alcohol.

A Laguna Beach physician with a history of drunk driving arrests was convicted on two murder counts Wednesday for driving while intoxicated and causing a car wreck that killed a Mission Viejo couple and injured three others.

Dr. Ronald Allen, 32, who was well known for treating poor AIDS patients, becomes one of the few drivers in Orange County to be charged and convicted of second-degree murder for taking lives while driving under the influence.

He was found guilty by a Superior Court jury in Santa Ana that deliberated for 2 1/2 days after trial testimony ended. He faces a maximum term of 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 24 in the deaths of Mark and Noreen Minzey.

The verdict brought exclamations of “Oh, God” and sobs from friends of the Minzeys, including Jackie Rodriguez, who was riding with the couple. Rodriguez was injured in the crash, along with her sister, Danielle, and the Minzeys’ daughter, Karie.

Allen sat with his head bowed and eyes closed for most of the proceeding, showing no visible emotion as the verdicts were read.

“He was given a gift to save lives, and look what’s done with it,” Jackie Rodriguez said afterward. “He took two lives. He should just be put away and not be allowed to go back to the streets.”

Outside the courtroom, Rebecca Rodriguez, the mother of Jackie and Danielle, said: “I was praying to God that the public was tired of drunk drivers, and today the jury’s verdict shows me they are.”

“He has to answer to God now,” she said. “We can forgive him, but he has to live with it.”

Noreen Minzey, 33, and Mark Minzey, 38, were on their way home after attending Karie’s softball game on July 11, 1993, when their car was struck head-on by Allen’s rented vehicle on Santiago Canyon Road near Orange.

The crash left Karie Minzey, now 12, critically injured with broken bones and head injuries. Jackie Rodriguez, now 25, suffered burns on her legs and Danielle Rodriguez, now 12, sustained a broken arm.

Allen was found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Most intoxicated drivers in fatal collisions are charged with vehicular manslaughter, which carries a maximum prison term of 11 years.

But prosecutors took the unusual step of lodging the most serious charges possible against Allen, arguing that his medical background and two prior arrests on suspicion of driving while intoxicated made him fully aware of the deadly risks when he got behind the wheel.

Assistant Deputy Public Defender Michael P. Giannini had asked jurors to convict Allen on lesser charges of manslaughter, arguing that his client was suffering from clinical depression and struggling financially. Just hours before the crash, Allen had learned that his father had died of a heart attack.

After the verdict, Giannini said that being labeled a murderer was painful for the doctor.

“Here is still a man who trained his whole life to save lives and now members of the community are labeling him a murderer,” he said. “That’s a very difficult philosophical pill for him to swallow.”

Giannini said he is disappointed in the verdict and plans to appeal. He will also argue at sentencing for much less than the maximum term.

But jurors said that despite the tragic aspects of the case for Allen, he deserved a tough sentence because he must have known what could happen when he decided to drink, take drugs and drive.

Allen’s prior drunk driving arrests and medical training also convinced jurors that he had sufficient understanding that he could harm others when he took the wheel, according to jury foreman John Gornik of Buena Park.

“We didn’t figure he was a bad person because of prior incidents, but we knew he knew the consequences,” Gornik said.

Gornik added that jurors tried hard not to become emotionally involved in the case or step into the role of crusaders against drunk driving.

“All we wanted to say was these are the laws and they were broken. We feel we did the right thing,” he said.

Juror Ron Taylor, 34, said tempers flared during deliberations because some jurors weren’t at first convinced that Allen knew what he was doing.

“It was very difficult because a few of us were leaning the other way at first and felt he was out of his mind,” he said. “But we came to the conclusion that he knew what he was doing. He was very smart.”

Taylor said the fact that Allen didn’t testify worked against him.

“I felt he might have seemed more sympathetic if he had testified,” he said.

Taylor said Karie Minzey’s testimony, during which she said she felt no anger toward Allen, touched jurors and made them sympathize with the Minzey family.

“We were all amazed at her attitude,” he said. “We all wished we were a lot like her and could forgive that way. Her testimony had a big emotional impact on us.”

Her testimony was also an emotional turning point for Allen, helping him accept responsibility for what he has done, his lawyer said.

“That did more than for him than any verdict the jury could have,” Giannini said. “He is totally remorseful. But to know that she is not going to spend her life in anger and being embittered also gives him tremendous hope. The girl’s forgiveness took away some of the horrible sting he feels.”

Besides the second-degree murder counts, the jury found Allen guilty of felony drunk driving for the injuries to Karie Minzey and the Rodriguezes.

Karie and her older sister, Shelbie, who was not involved in the crash, now live with an aunt and uncle in Georgia. The family greeted the verdict with relief.

“We’re just really glad it’s over,” said Jeanine Posey, the girls’ aunt and Mark Minzey’s sister. “We’re glad that he got all three counts. Hopefully it will save someone else’s life.”

Karie, who had helped lead her all-star softball team to victory shortly before the crash, suffered a broken left knee and right wrist, but the most serious injuries were to her head. While she was in a coma, doctors shaved her head and removed nearly the entire left side of her skull to relieve pressure on her swollen brain.

She had to learn to walk again and must undergo further operations. The removed portion of her skull was frozen and later replaced, but it has not healed properly and has left a large sunken spot on the left rear of her head.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko has termed the incident “the most egregious drunk driving case” he’s seen in 20 years “both because of the injuries and how much knowledge he (Allen) had of drugs.”

“He learned so much in medical school and yet with all that awareness, he ended up committing one of the worst deeds you can,” he continued.

On the day of the crash, Molko said Allen had been driving recklessly, using left-turn pockets to speed ahead of traffic on the rural road. Blood tests show Allen had used alcohol and taken five different drugs, including a “substantial” amount of Valium, before the fatal crash.

During the trial, Molko also emphasized Allen’s previous brushes with the law.

In June, 1993--shortly before the fatal crash--Allen was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, hit-and-run driving and resisting arrest after he allegedly rammed his car into three parked vehicles in Laguna Beach. That case was pending at the time of the July 11 accident.

Hours before the crash that killed the Minzeys, Allen was cited for speeding. But the officer who stopped him did not discover an outstanding warrant for his arrest stemming from another collision in April, 1992, when Allen allegedly rear-ended a car while driving drunk in Laguna Niguel.

In late 1992, Allen had consumed alcohol shortly before he was stopped by a police officer in Palm Springs, according to court testimony. The officer admonished Allen after learning of his profession, saying, “You should know better than that,” according to court records.

But Giannini stressed through the trial that Allen had never been convicted of driving while intoxicated, although charges were pending at the time of the fatal crash, and asked jurors not to discriminate against Allen because of his medical background.

Allen also faces civil lawsuits seeking damages filed by the Minzey and Rodriguez families.

Times staff writer Diane Seo contributed to this report.

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Allen Case Chronology

* July 11, 1993: Laguna Beach physician Ronald Joseph Allen collides head-on with a Dodge minivan on Santiago Canyon Road, killing van occupants Mark and Noreen Minzey and critically injuring their 11-year-old daughter, Karie. Allen sustains minor injuries, is arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

* July 13: State medical officials acknowledge they failed to act quickly to investigate Allen’s history of drug-related arrests.

* July 15: Municipal Judge William L. Evans orders Allen held without bail on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko reveals Allen’s history of alcohol- and drug-related arrests and that he had fresh and old needle marks on his body when arrested.

* July 23: District attorney upgrades charges of vehicular manslaughter to two second-degree murder charges and one felony charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

* July 30: In jailhouse interview, Allen says he went for a drive while under the influence of Valium and alcohol, hoping the mixture of drugs and alcohol would ease pain of his father’s death.

* Aug. 6: Allen’s California medical license is temporarily suspended.

* Aug. 24: Karie Minzey leaves Western Medical Center to go live with relatives in Kennesaw, Ga. Older sister, Shelbie, 15, had been living there since parents’ death.

* Sept. 17: Allen pleads innocent to two-second degree murder charges.

* Nov. 22: Allen bound over for trial on the murder charges.

* Dec. 6: Allen arraigned in Orange County Superior Court.

* Dec. 16: Through legal guardians, Karie and Shelbie Minzey file wrongful death suit for $30 million against Allen and National Car Rental System Inc.

* July 8, 1994: Minzey girls file wrongful death suits against California Department of Motor Vehicles, Medical Board of California and South Coast Medical Center, which treated Allen for alleged suicidal tendencies a month before collision. They also sue Chrysler Corp., makers of Dodge minivan their parents drove.

* Dec. 22: Jury begins deliberations.

* Dec. 28: Allen convicted on two counts of second-degree murder.

Source: Times reports