Doctor Gets 18 Years to Life for Fatal Car Crash

A Laguna Beach physician, who had consumed five kinds of drugs, along with alcohol, when his car crashed into a Mission Viejo family and killed the parents, was sentenced Friday to 18 years to life in prison.

Ronald Joseph Allen, 33, who specialized in AIDS treatment and was noted for accepting patients other doctors had turned away, was convicted Dec. 28 of second-degree murder. He had been drinking and had taken five prescription drugs on July 11, 1993, when he crashed into another car, killing Mark and Noreen Minzey. Their daughter, Karie Minzey, now 13, was critically injured, and two other passengers in their car were hurt.

“This was no accident,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko, who argued for the maximum sentence of 33 years to life. “This was murder.”

Superior Court Judge David O. Carter addressed Allen directly as he described the difficulty of deciding the fate of a promising young doctor who made the decision to use drugs and alcohol and to drive that night.

“This court must balance the lives you’ve saved and helped and hope it washes some way against the lives you took. It’s not a balance,” Carter said before issuing his sentence. The judge added that he hoped Allen could find a way to help AIDS patients in prison.

Mark Minzey, 38, and Noreen Minzey, 33, were returning from watching Karie play in a softball game when their car was struck head-on by Allen’s rented car near Orange. Karie Minzey suffered critical head injuries and broken bones. Passenger Jackie Rodriguez, now 25, suffered burns on her legs and Danielle Rodriguez, 12, suffered a broken arm.

Addressing the court, Allen said: “I want to say that I’m sorry, which is all I can say.” He said he was so moved when Karie Minzey testified at the trial that she did not hate him that he went to church in jail that night.

“For that girl to sit in the courtroom and look at me . . . and say I don’t hate this man. . . . To me, that’s Jesus,” he said. “She’s a beautiful child.”