Trial postponed in Berthoud crash

Deputy DA says issues still being investigated

Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 8, 2007 at midnight

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LOVELAND - A judge on Thursday granted prosecutors a 5 1/2 week delay to investigate several unspecified issues in the January car crash that cost two Berthoud teenagers their legs.

Michelle Berra, 18, faces two counts of careless driving causing injury in the accident.

Before a brief hearing Thursday afternoon in Larimer County Court, Deputy District Attorney Joshua Ritter huddled with John Chanin, Berra's attorney, in a conference room. Then Ritter stepped before Judge Christine Carney and asked for a 30-day continuance.

It was not clear what prompted the move but, according to a source familiar with the case, the defense hired an expert to reconstruct the accident and recently forwarded that report to the district attorney's office. Now, the DA's office is expected to hire an independent accident reconstruction expert to take a new look at the crash, the source said.

Thursday's hearing came less than three weeks after court filings raised the possibility that the two injured boys had been drinking before the Jan. 15 accident.

"There are a few issues the people are still investigating," Ritter said.

Carney granted the request, rescheduling the hearing for July 17.

Michelle Berra graduated from Berthoud High School Saturday, along with one of the two boys who lost his legs in the accident, Tyler Carron. He and Nikko Landeros, the other teenager injured in the accident, have been the subject of numerous news stories chronicling their efforts to come back from their horrific injuries.

Carron walked on prosthetic legs with the aid of trekking poles as he received his diploma. Landeros graduates in 2008.

Carron was driving Landeros and three girls, all ages 15 and 16, home from a dance on Jan. 15 when his Isuzu Trooper got a flat tire. They stopped on a county road - a state trooper later determined they were in the middle of the southbound lane - and were behind the vehicle, preparing to change the tire, when Berra's Toyota Land Cruiser smashed into them.

Berra told investigators she was momentarily distracted by a vehicle that pulled up behind her and that she didn't see the Isuzu until an instant before the collision. On May 18, Berra's attorneys filed a motion in court asserting that they'd obtained medical records showing that Carron and Landeros, both 17 at the time, had been drinking. In addition, a state trooper determined that Carron had his driver's license for 10 months, meaning he should not have had more than one passenger under age 21 with him.

Ritter did not comment after the hearing. Chanin made it clear he welcomed the move.

"We are gratified that the district attorney's office is taking another look at this case," Chanin said in a hallway in the Loveland courthouse, flanked by Berra, who turned 18 in May, her parents and her younger brother.

Chanin was asked about the specific nature of the ongoing investigation but declined to comment. "Until the district attorney completes the review of this case, we're going to let the process run its course," he said.

A separate investigation is being conducted by the Thornton Police Department to determine whether a commander there, Lori Moriarty, violated policy by involving herself in the investigation.

Moriarty, who is identified in State Patrol documents as an aunt of Tyler Carron's, was at the scene when investigators re-enacted the collision, videotaping it, speaking with witnesses and, at one point, questioning the conclusions of a trooper that the Isuzu was stopped in the roadway, not on the shoulder.

Berra arrived at the Loveland courthouse Thursday afternoon with Chanin; her mother and father, Marina and Michael; her younger brother, Michael; and one of her grandmothers. Supporters hugged her in the hallway before she stepped into Carney's courtroom and took a seat in the back.

She sat next to Chanin during the hearing, which lasted less than 2 1/2 minutes, but did not speak.

After the hearing, Berra headed off for a dinner organized to help raise money to defer her legal expenses.

vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5019

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