Former police officer faces murder charge in DUI

A former Pleasanton police sergeant is being charged with murder in a crash that killed a young woman, the Tuolumne County district attorney said.

Theodore W. Young, 63, was scheduled to appear in court Monday to face charges of murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence causing brain injury, and driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher causing brain injury with a prior driving under the influence conviction.

On the evening of Jan. 18, Young’s pickup reportedly crossed the center line on Highway 49 near Jamestown and crashed head-on into a sedan driven by Rebekah Gall, 27, of Oakdale, the California Highway Patrol said. She was taken by helicopter to a Modesto hospital, where she died Friday.

Young was not injured.

He was arrested at the crash scene on suspicion of driving under the influence causing injury, and was released Wednesday on $30,000 bail.

After Gall’s death, Young was rearrested Saturday by CHP officers.

Young is a resident of Sonora, and the jail booking log listed his occupation as “law enforcement.”

The Union Democrat newspaper said Young is a retired sergeant from the Pleasanton Police Department.

A public employee database indicates he was employed there until 2016.

In September 2017, he was arrested in Sonora for driving under the influence and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, the paper reported. He was sentenced to a fine and three years’ probation.

Friends at a memorial gathering for Gall on Saturday told the Modesto Bee she lived in Oakdale with her husband of four years, Michael, and their dogs.