Motion hearing held in Holiday crash case

Aug 2, 2023

L’ANSE — The Illinois man accused of being responsible for a semi-truck crash at the Holiday station in L’Anse that killed one person and heavily damaged the building appeared Tuesday in Baraga County Circuit Court.

Keith DeForge, attorney for Dawaun Johnson, argued two motions: One to suppress blood-alcohol tests Johnson took after the crash, and another to quash the circuit court bindover of a charge alleging serious injury. Both motions had also been brought up in district court, where the judge ruled for the prosecution.

Johnson, 23, of Highland Park, Illinois, was working for trucking company CR England on the night of the crash in October. His blood-alcohol level two hours after the crash was 0.156 percent, according to a Michigan State Police incident report.

DeForge argued Tuesday that the Michigan State Police trooper did not have probable cause to conduct the tests. He questioned Trooper Rachel Roose, who said she had smelled alcohol on Johnson while talking to him.

Every other time Roose had responded to an OWI where she smelled alcohol on someone’s breath, she had mentioned it to them before their blood-alcohol test, DeForge said.

In this case, Roose said she had not wanted to agitate Johnson, though he appeared calm at the scene, she said. She treated the scene differently than previous OWIs because it was the first that had involved a death, she said.

“I knew there was a lot to lose, and I wanted to make the best decision for the victim,” she said.

DeForge noted that while other deputies had noticed things such as Johnson’s fumbling the door handle, Roose was the only one who had noted a smell of alcohol emanating from him.

“Everyone was under the impression that in a late night driving a long time, Johnson fell asleep at the wheel,” he said.

Baraga County Prosecutor Joseph O’Leary disputed DeForge’s contention that nobody had suspected an OWI before that point. The alleged crime itself was novel enough to invite suspicion, he said.

“Nobody’s ever plowed into the gas pumps,” he said.

Johnson faces felony charges of operating while intoxicated – causing death and operating while intoxicated – causing serious injury. Both carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison.

He is also charged with having an open alcohol container in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.

DeForge sought to quash the decision to include the serious injury charge. That relates to the clerk who was working at the Holiday station during the crash.

The statute includes, but is not limited to, injuries such as loss of a limb, loss of an eye or a comatose state that lasts for more than three days. DeForge said the statute doesn’t apply in this case.

“These are very serious injuries, and she just doesn’t have them in this case,” he said.

O’Leary pointed to the diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as the clerk’s testimony that she couldn’t drive anymore because of anxiety attacks triggered by seeing other vehicles.

He also brought up the bar for reversing a lower court’s bindover decision, which a state court ruling said would require an abuse of discretion “so palpably and grossly violative of fact and logic that it evidences…not the exercise of judgment but defiance thereof,”

“The court might not even like the bindover decision,” O’Leary said. “The question is whether it was a clear abuse of discretion.”

Baraga County Circuit Court Judge Brittany Bulleit said she would issue a written ruling on both motions later.

Johnson’s trial had originally been scheduled to begin Tuesday. Last month, the start date was pushed back to Nov. 1.

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