Deputies Defended for Letting Kids in Blazer Go

NEWPORT BEACH — Orange County sheriff’s deputies who stopped a vehicle filled with high school students two hours before it was involved in a fatal crash made “a good judgment call” by letting the teens go on their way after determining the driver was sober, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The deputies, who were not identified, gave an extensive field sobriety test to the 18-year-old driver, Jason Andrew Rausch, at 10:03 p.m. Thursday before allowing himand half a dozen friends to leave, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson.

“The deputies talked to everyone in the [Chevrolet Blazer]. No one was intoxicated, everyone was cooperative and a designated driver was at the wheel,” Wilkerson said. “It’s a judgment call by the deputy. The main concern is that no one is driving drunk, and no one was.”

Rausch was behind the wheel of the same sport utility vehicle two hours later when it careened out of control on a curving stretch of Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach, police said. The driver was not under the influence, but police said they suspect he was speeding.

Ten students had been inside the vehicle; eight were ejected. One of them, Donald Bridgman, 18, of Newport Beach, a Newport Harbor High School senior, was killed. Two others were critically injured and remained hospitalized Tuesday.

Rausch, the driver, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and released last week on $10,000 bail.

The deputies who stopped the Blazer outside a house party in Santa Ana Heights ordered everyone in the truck to get out and asked if anyone was drinking. A single “half-empty, freshly opened beer” was discovered along with three unopened six-packs, Wilkerson said.

In the opinion of one parent, though, the judgment call was a poor one. Jan Thorsky, whose 16-year-old daughter was driving behind her friends in the Blazer at the time of the grisly crash, said the deputies gave “implied consent” to underage drinking by letting the students go.

“As parents, we need all the help we can get,” Thorsky said. “They should have marched the kids into the house, got them on the phone to their parents and let us decide what to do. It’s a mother’s right to know, and I would have wanted to know. I’ve talked to other parents, and they feel the same way.”

Wilkerson said the veteran deputies had the teens, all 16 to 18, empty every beer, but opted not to issue citations for the open container, possession of alcohol by a minor or any seat belt violations in the crowded car.

*

Friends of the Newport Harbor High students said the Blazer stopped at another gathering before the accident, possibly explaining why there were more students in the top-heavy vehicle later. Wilkerson said he was unsure if deputies cautioned the students about having more occupants than seat belts, but he said such a violation would have resulted only in a ticket, not an arrest or an order to find a different way home.

Newport Beach police Tuesday continued their investigation of the crash by inspecting the mangled vehicle for any suggestions of malfunction or equipment failure. The entire investigation may take two weeks, Newport Beach Police Sgt. John Desmond said.

The tragedy rocked Newport Harbor High School, where graduation and end-of-school celebrations have taken on a mournful air.

Counselors from throughout the Newport-Mesa Unified School District assembled Tuesday in the campus library to speak with rattled students. Many students wore blue and white ribbons, the school colors, to mark the tragedy, while others put up posters with messages of mourning and loss, students said.

Principal Gary Norton also made an emotional morning speech to the school’s 1,800 students, who gathered in class for the first time without Bridgman and the students who were injured in the crash.

The school has also scheduled an after-school assembly today to provide a forum for students and parents who want to talk about the crash or their feelings, students said.

Many students left the campus about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to attend a service at Mariner’s South Coast Church, where family members mourned Bridgman, known as bright teen with a good sense of humor and a love of outdoor sports. At the request of the family, the press did not attend the service.