Guilty plea in DWI fatality
Ex-officer faces 364 days in jail for hitting woman in wheelchair
A former Albuquerque police officer who was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and fatally striking a woman in a wheelchair has pleaded guilty to two crimes in the case.
Rodney Locke, 55, entered a guilty plea to aggravated drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident causing great bodily harm and will face a sentence of up to 364 days in jail and as much as a five-year stint on probation. Second Judicial District Judge Cindy Leos will decide whether Locke can serve his sentence through a community custody program or if he can earn good time, according to the conditions of his plea agreement.
Locke was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide and other charges after, police said, he struck and killed 60-year-old Kay Moss-Freese near Lomas and Louisiana NE in September 2016.
Moss-Freese was driving her wheelchair on Louisiana when she was hit around 11:30 p.m. She died the next day, according to police.
Prosecutors dropped a homicide by motor vehicle charge against Locke. Michael Patrick, a spokesman for District Attorney Raúl Torrez, said there were “serious flaws” in the case.
“The reason being the vehicular homicide was dismissed was after a full review of the case, including witness interviews and discussion with family members, we would not have been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt causation that in fact, Mr. Locke’s intoxication caused the death of the victim,” prosecutor David Waymire said in court, according to a transcript of the hearing. “The victim was in a wheelchair at night in a lane of traffic and was scooting backwards against traffic and it was dark and she did not have any reflectors or lights on her wheelchair.”
He said it would have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt a sober person would not have had the same collision.
“And based on the totality of the evidence we concluded we would not have been able to prove that a sober person would not have also struck the victim in this case,” Waymire said.
Locke was with Albuquerque police from 1988 to 2009 and retired as a patrolman.