A sixth DUI arrest for woman convicted in fatal car accident

She spent nearly six years in prison for killing a mother of two while driving drunk, tearfully apologized to the victim's family in court and promised the judge who labeled her a "human bomb" that she'd "try to live right in the future."

But now, less than three years after her release from prison for vehicular homicide, Susan Lynn West, 48, is in trouble again -- arrested for the sixth time Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving.


		P-I / 1997
	West

West wasn't even supposed to be driving when the Bellevue police officer stopped her.

Her license had been suspended since July 1997, after her minivan struck and killed Mary Johnsen, who was walking hand-in-hand with her husband along a road near Issaquah. West's blood-alcohol level was measured at more than three times the legal limit.

Johnsen's death spurred outrage -- and the passage of 13 DUI-related laws in Olympia the following year. In 1998, lawmakers reduced deferred prosecutions, lowered the blood-alcohol limit for drivers to 0.08 percent and passed the Mary Johnsen Act, a law compelling convicted drunken drivers to prove their sobriety by breathing into ignition interlock devices to start their cars.

This year, legislators further toughened DUI laws by making a person's fifth conviction in 10 years a felony.

"It's the repeat offender that we're after," Rep. John Ahern, a Spokane Republican and prime sponsor of the felony DUI law, said Tuesday. "Probably 90 percent of DUI (offenders) never come back. It's just a handful that's causing a problem, like Susan West. ... It's for protection of the citizens."

West would have faced another possible prison term under the felony law because of her vehicular homicide conviction, but it doesn't take effect until July 2007.

She was charged Monday in King County District Court with DUI and driving with a suspended license, Bellevue City Attorney Susan Irwin said.

The Bellevue woman is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail but has not appeared for her arraignment yet because she has been in a detox center since her arrest, Irwin said.

The city attorney said West's history of repeated DUIs and the vehicular homicide were not a factor in establishing which charges to file.

"We have to judge each case on the individual facts we receive, but was her prior history a factor in the bail we requested? Yes," Irwin said.

West was driving a black Buick four-door when she was spotted by a Bellevue patrol officer about 12:15 a.m. Sunday near the Newport Hills shopping center.

The officer discovered that West had a suspended license.

"It was suspended and the reason was for vehicular homicide, which you do not see every day," Bellevue police spokesman Greg Grannis said Tuesday.

When the officer approached the car, he detected a powerful alcohol odor. In his police report, the officer noted that West slurred her words, had bloodshot, watery eyes and had trouble keeping her balance, leaning against the car for support when she got out of the vehicle.

The officer asked West to take a field sobriety test, but she refused, saying she didn't have her contact lenses. It took her several seconds to remove her driver's license for him, and she at first told the officer she could not sit down on the curb because then she would be unable to get back up.

The officer decided to arrest West, judging from her behavior that she was too drunk to be driving, and place her into custody. In her car, officers found two open, 24-ounce cans of beer on the floorboard in the front passenger seat.

During the booking process, West refused to take a breath test and leaned against officers to remain upright. Asked how much she had been drinking, West replied that she had had four glasses of wine and her last was at least seven hours earlier. She was booked into the King County Jail about 1 p.m. Sunday.

West gained notoriety for the July 26, 1997, death of Johnsen -- like West, a mother of two.

After the minivan hit Johnsen, West sped away, her 4-year-old son in the back seat. Arrested later in a grocery store parking lot, West still had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.34 percent. At the time, state law regarded 0.10 as evidence of intoxication. It has since been lowered to 0.08.

But outrage over the death came not from how drunk West was at the time, but the number of earlier drunken-driving incidents she had.

She was arrested for drunken driving in Pullman in 1978, found guilty of DUI in Seattle in 1985, and was charged with two other DUIs -- in Marysville in 1989 and Issaquah in 1991. In the two latter cases, prosecution was deferred.

Drunken driving "used to be thought of as being a social ill," said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, who pushed several bills out of the Law and Justice Committee following the 1997 death.

"It's only recently that we're making people accept responsibility for their actions, which has such adverse effects on their families," Roach said.

A focus on drunken driving has helped push DUI-related traffic fatalities in the state down from 353 in 1996 to 214 in 2004, according to the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. About 41,000 DUI citations were issued in 2005.

Currently, Spokane and Clallam County have specific courts set up to deal with drunken drivers. The commission is pushing to have others as a way to reduce repeat offenders. And work on toughening laws punishing drunken driving has continued.

Ahern said there need to be tougher laws for repeat offenders such as West. He wants to lower the felony threshold from five to three DUI "strikes" or remove the 10-year period altogether.

West faces at least a year in jail and a $5,000 fine if convicted of the latest offense.

It was not immediately clear how her potential sentence could be affected by her criminal history.

DRUNK AND DEADLY

Susan Lynn West has a history of drunken driving that spans a quarter-century, records show:

1978 -- Arrested for DUI in Pullman. Disposition unknown.

1985 -- Arrested for DUI and later convicted in Seattle Municipal Court.

1989 -- Arrested for DUI after hitting a car in Marysville. Granted a deferred prosecution; case dismissed in 1992.

1991 -- Arrested for DUI after driving off Fall City-Snoqualmie Road. Granted a deferred prosecution; case dismissed in 1994.

July 26, 1997 -- Veering off the side of the road, hits and kills a 38-year-old pedestrian with her speeding van. The victim had been walking hand-in-hand with her husband along Southeast 32nd Street in the Beaver Lake neighborhood.

Sept. 22, 1997 -- Charged with vehicular homicide, hit-and-run driving, reckless driving and reckless endangerment. Later pleads guilty.

Nov. 20, 1997 -- Sentenced to nine years in prison for vehicular homicide and 14 months for hit and run.

July 21, 2003 -- Released from prison and placed on community-custody supervision in King County.

Jan. 1, 2006 -- Community supervision ends.

June 18 -- Arrested for DUI and driving with a suspended license.

Sources: court records; published reports

P-I reporter Phuong Cat Le can be reached at 206-448-8390 or phuongle@seattlepi.com.

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