Pittman Loses Bid for New Trial

After dismissing allegations that a crime lab contaminated evidence in the case, a judge on Wednesday denied a new trial for a Ventura woman convicted of vehicular manslaughter in the death of a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy.

Superior Court Judge Donald Coleman also rejected claims that relatives of Deputy Lisa Whitney tried to improperly influence the jury by wearing buttons emblazoned with her picture in court during the trial.

And he chastised the defense for accusing Whitney’s fellow officers of stealing seats in the courtroom reserved by the defendant’s family.

“I think it is just silly,” the judge snapped. “Absolutely silly.”

Coleman’s rulings capped a daylong hearing that is scheduled to resume this afternoon with the sentencing of 37-year-old Tanya Pittman. She faces up to 13 years in state prison.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Pittman’s lawyers challenged the reliability of blood tests used to convict her last October.

After deliberating three days, a jury concluded Pittman was under the influence of illegal and prescription drugs when she crashed into Whitney’s unmarked patrol car and killed the 28-year-old officer.

A sample of Pittman’s blood was drawn right after the Aug. 12, 1998, crash and tested at the county’s crime lab. Scientists there found evidence of Pittman having used methamphetamine and a muscle relaxant called Soma.

Pittman’s trial attorney argued that small amounts of drugs found in her system were not enough to impair her judgment. A separate, independent test of the blood was not conducted by the defense prior to trial.

Santa Barbara attorney Robert Sanger, who did not represent Pittman at the trial, questioned the validity of the blood tests. He recently had the sample retested at a private lab in Bakersfield.

A scientist from that lab testified Wednesday that he found a significantly smaller amount of methamphetamine--about half--present in Pittman’s blood.

A toxicologist who later analyzed the results testified that the original test at the county lab was probably contaminated. “Something happened,” Darrell Clardy testified. “I would not expect a drop by 50%.”

Sanger argued that the new results should be shown to a jury.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon argued that the defense failed to prove the second test would substantially affect the outcome of a new trial.

And, he added, both tests prove the prosecution argument that the defendant had illegal drugs in her system.

Fighting the claims of contamination of the blood test, Simon called his own witness from the county crime lab to testify. Toxicology supervisor Dea Boehme testified that discrepancies in the two tests could be attributed to storage and differences in testing methods.

Coleman said that the defense had to show that its new evidence would likely bring about a different result at a second trial. He concluded that it would not.

As for the issue of the photo buttons worn by the victim’s family, Coleman challenged Sanger to explain how those could have influenced the jury’s verdict.

“What communication is being made?” he asked. “How about ‘I love this person and I miss them?’ ”

Coleman ruled that there was no attempt by spectators to intimidate jurors or subvert the judicial process.

At today’s sentencing hearing, Pittman faces up to 13 years in prison as a result of the vehicular manslaughter conviction and prior criminal offenses.

Those include a 1981 manslaughter conviction for stabbing a man to death on a beach in San Diego County and a 1989 drug conviction in federal court. The prior offenses mean Pittman will likely receive a longer sentence than she would have otherwise.

Pittman was found guilty Oct. 20, 1999, of two counts of vehicular manslaughter--one for driving under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash and the other for speeding.

According to court testimony, Pittman was driving 56 mph in a 45-mph zone when she entered the intersection of Hill and Telephone roads in east Ventura.

The crash occurred about 6:45 p.m., about 10 minutes after a transformer explosion knocked out power to the intersection’s traffic signals.

Whitney, an Oxnard resident, was driving to Camarillo to interview a witness in a rape case she was investigating. She was making a left turn onto Telephone Road when her car was hit by Pittman’s vehicle.