Left: Sarah Clasen in court (via KOMO). Right: Clasen (Washington State Police).
The off-duty Washington state trooper accused of running down a man with her car while driving with a blood alcohol level at least twice the legal limit faces homicide charges some six months after the fatal crash.
As Law&Crime has previously reported, Sarah Clasen, 35, allegedly struck and killed Jhoser Vega Sanchez, 20, in March. Her blood alcohol level at the time was 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime says.
She was charged with vehicular homicide on Thursday, court documents show.
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According to the probable cause affidavit, Clasen was seen on surveillance video exiting a “drinking establishment” called Moon Palace shortly before 7:30 p.m. and getting into her car, a 2024 Kia, in Richland, a city in south-central Washington, 30 miles north of the Oregon border.
Within minutes, at around 7:30 p.m., she “picked up a pizza from Domino”s Pizza,” the affidavit said.
As she was driving, police say, she “failed to yield the right of way to Vega Sanchez as she attempted to make a left turn from State Route 240 onto Village Parkway.” She allegedly struck Vega Sanchez with her Kia. While it wasn’t immediately clear how fast Clasen was going, the affidavit noted that “[r]oadway evidence that was obtained at the scene indicated the maximum speed of the motorcyclists was 54 miles per hour before the motorcyclist began braking. Vega Sanchez had been travelling in a 55 mile per hour speed zone.”
Local CBS affiliate KREM reported that Clasen told police she was traveling at around 20 miles per hour.
A witness allegedly said she got out of the car “without any sense of urgency, and she appeared to be dazed and confused.”
“Witnesses on the scene reported that they believed Sarah was attempting to flee the scene after she collided with the motorcyclist,” the affidavit said. “The witnesses that arrived on scene reported that Sarah’s response was not consistent to what they would expect for an off-duty police officer who was just involved with a collision.”
Clasen’s “speech was slurred, she continually trailed off and did not complete her sentences,” according to the affidavit, which also noted that her “statements were disorganized, and she made incoherent statements.”
Law&Crime obtained body camera footage of the crash.
The off-duty law enforcement officer allegedly “showed no empathy while on scene and she laughed casually while discussing the dire condition Vega Sanchez was in,” the affidavit said.
Clasen reportedly told investigators that she thought Vega Sanchez was traveling toward her in a car with one headlight out and that “as she made the turn, she felt the impact of the motorcycle hitting her vehicle.”
She “refused” to submit to a field sobriety test, the document said, although she later was compelled to provide a blood test after police got a warrant.
Officers on the scene noted that “her speech was slurred and her eyes were watery,” and that she smelled of alcohol. She allegedly gave inconsistent responses to questions and “took a significant amount of time to complete” a written statement about the collision that, the affidavit noted, contained multiple errors and misspellings.
Washington records show that Clasen has also been sued for wrongful death by the victim’s family.
Under Washington law, Clasen faces a sentence of up to life in prison if convicted. According to the docket, Clasen has an arraignment scheduled for Sept. 24.
