Rausch Sentenced to Probation, Fine for Role as Driver in Fatal O.C. Crash

Ending a case that tore friendships apart and divided a community, a judge on Wednesday spared 19-year-old Jason Rausch a jail sentence for his role as the speeding driver in a crash that killed one of his former classmates and left two others with serious brain injuries.

The Newport Harbor High School graduate was sentenced to three years’ probation, a $1,000 fine, restitution to the victims’ families, and 250 hours of community service, much of it speaking to other students about the dangers of reckless driving.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey, who convicted Rausch of a charge of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in February, said he believed that a jail sentence would serve no other purpose than vengeance in the emotion-laden case.

“The court is convinced that Jason Rausch is truly remorseful and has thought about this and his responsibility for it every day since it happened,” Dickey said. “And he will have to live with it for the rest of his life. He knows it is his friends he hurt.”

Killed in the accident was Donny Bridgman, 18, the owner of the Chevrolet Blazer, which was packed with 10 teenagers that night when it flipped and crashed on a sharp curve on Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach.

Amanda Arthur, 18, was left in a coma and caused a sensation when she awoke 11 weeks later. Arthur, who was named the school’s homecoming queen last fall, still suffers from a possibly permanent brain injury.

Danny Townsend is still recovering from a brain injury that has left him unable to drive.

Rausch was the designated driver that night and had not been drinking but there has been a fierce legal battle and a contentious community debate about his culpability.

Vickie Bridgman, who had placed photos of her son Donny, both dead and alive, before Rausch on Tuesday before a stunned courtroom, said she does not believe the sentence is just but “it’s not a surprise to me.”

“I don’t think my family got a fair shake,” she added.

Judge Dickey spoke about the responsibility parents have in keeping a close watch on the activities of teenagers like those who piled into the Blazer on May 23 with Rausch at the wheel.

Dickey ordered that at least 100 hours of Rausch’s community service sentence be spent speaking to other teenagers “who need to have a lesson as to what can happen in an accident like this even if you’re not drinking.”

Deputy State Atty. Gen. Jim Dutton had requested a six-month jail term for Rausch as well as a suspended driver’s license as a condition of probation. The case was transferred to Dutton’s jurisdiction because Vickie Bridgman is an Orange County deputy district attorney.

Dickey said that since Rausch’s conviction did not include gross negligence or intoxication, he could not find a legal code that enabled him to continue to suspend Rausch’s license. It was revoked by the Department of Motor Vehicles in September because of the accident.

Defense attorney Jennifer Keller said she is not sure how long the revocation will last. Keller said she believes the sentence was “fair and just by a judge who took everything into account.”

But, she added: “I don’t think [Rausch] is ever going to be happy. He’s got to live with this for the rest of his life.”

Vickie Bridgman said that Rausch came to her after the accident and apologized, but she believes it was under “false pretenses.” She does not believe the apology was sincere and is also upset with his demeanor since.

“If you admit your mistakes and you live a good life, and you go on and do productive things, then I can forgive you. And that’s what I told him,” she said. “And that’s not what happened.”

Diana Townsend, mother of Danny Townsend, seemed relieved that the ordeal of the trial was over but she and Bridgman said this week they are still considering filing civil lawsuits against Rausch. “I’m just glad it’s finished,” she said. “Jason will get on with his life and hopefully Danny will heal and get on with his life.”

Meanwhile, Amanda Arthur is preparing to return to Newport Harbor High School on a limited basis beginning Friday to spend at least part of her senior year on campus, said her mother, Chris Maese. She will enroll as a special education student and will attend morning classes three times a week for the rest of the year, her mother said.

“Mandy wants desperately to go back to school,” Maese said. “Whether she will actually learn anything, I don’t know, but it will be good for her spirits and morale.”

Maese also said she believes that the sentence Rausch received was a fair one.

“I think it’s great,” Maese said. “He has been very supportive of Amanda’s recovery. It was a mistake. We knew he was driving too fast. But we didn’t feel that he should go to jail for it. I think that justice was done. I think the sentence was perfect. I think that talking to teenagers about being a designated driver is important.”

Keller expects that it will be difficult emotionally for Rausch to endure the court-ordered speaking engagements in front of high school students, but she said he is prepared to do it just as he was prepared to serve time in jail.

“It’s going to be really hard on him,” she said. “It’s a matter of reliving this. It’s not something that he is going to be taking lightly. Every time he goes to a group, he’ll have to steel himself to replay these events and they are horrifying.”

Rausch’s mother, Leslie Backstrom, testified this week that her son was suicidal after the accident and still suffers nightmares. She said the notoriety of the accident has made it difficult for her son to land a job and the legal proceedings caused him to drop out of at least two college courses.

The accident has provoked prolonged debate over what responsibility parents may have played in allowing their teenagers to drink and ride in the vehicle that night and who among the teens was ultimately at fault.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy had stopped the Blazer earlier in the evening and questioned Rausch. The deputy looked in the car and found cans of beer. He made the teenagers pour out the beer then let them leave. The teens then went to a liquor store and used false identifications to buy more beer.

Bridgman, who says her son “should never have ever been drinking” that night, still blames designated driver Rausch for the accident, not her son or anyone else in the Blazer.

“It’s like the pilot of an airplane,” she said. “Do we ever blame the passengers for pilot error?”

Rausch was driving Donny Bridgman’s Blazer for the first time the night of the accident, a fact that the judge said contributed to the accident. The speed Rausch was going that night has been disputed, with the prosecution contending he drove more than 60 mph and the defense maintaining he was traveling about 44 mph. The speed limit was 35 mph.

Rausch, now a student at Orange Coast College, showed little reaction as the judge imposed his sentence. Eventually, he stood and hugged his mother then slowly made his way out of the courtroom before being confronted by a throng of cameras.

Rausch’s father, Manny Hernandez, spoke briefly with reporters and said he hoped the entire situation would serve as a wake-up call to all parents because “this could happen to your family.”

Carolyn Blevins, a Rausch family friend who has a teenage daughter attending Newport Harbor High School, echoed that message: “We need to wake up to who our kids really are. Parents need to really start to pay attention to their kids.”

Blevins and others expressed hope that a healing in the community could begin.

“There’s still a lot of anger and blame,” she said. “I pray there will be some kind of peace.”

Times correspondent Hope Hamashige contributed to this story.