Bishop Says He Saw No Pedestrian

Catholic Bishop Thomas O’Brien testified at his hit-and-run trial Monday that he heard a loud crash on the night he struck and killed a pedestrian but that he never saw anyone in the road.

O’Brien, speaking publicly for the first time about the accident that ended his 21-year career as head of the Phoenix Diocese, said he winced and put up his right hand upon hearing the noise on the passenger side of his car.

He said he looked around the car and saw his windshield had been damaged but did not see anyone. The accident caused a crack over much of the passenger side of the windshield.

Had he seen the pedestrian, “I would have stopped because that’s the human thing to do,” O’Brien said. “I couldn’t imagine not stopping.”

Under questioning from defense attorney Tom Henze, O’Brien said he drove on without figuring out what had happened. He said he thought more about the windshield after arriving home.

“It might have been a dog,” O’Brien said. “It might have been a rock. I just didn’t know.”

He stated that he did not see a dog hit his windshield or anyone throwing a rock at him.

O’Brien is accused of leaving the scene of an accident that killed jaywalking pedestrian Jim Reed on June 14. If convicted, O’Brien, 68, could get nearly four years in prison.

Under cross-examination, O’Brien conceded he didn’t stop to check on his car, although there were several areas where he could have pulled over after the accident.

“You never thought that there might be someone dying in the street?” asked prosecutor Mitch Rand.

“It never entered my mind,” O’Brien said.

The accident occurred less than two weeks after prosecutors announced O’Brien had signed an immunity deal to spare him from indictment on obstruction charges for protecting alleged child-molesting priests.