Washington State Trooper arrested for vehicular homicide after alleged drunk collision with motorcyclist

A Washington State patrol trooper was charged with vehicular homicide after she allegedly plowed into a 20-year-old motorcyclist while drunk behind the wheel.Sarah Lee Clasen, 35, was driving in her vehicle down State Route 240 in Richland — about 200 miles southeast of Seattle — on Saturday at around 7:40 p.m.when she allegedly struck Jhoser Sanchez while he was riding his motorcycle, officials said in a press conference Monday.Clasen had attempted to make a left turn in front of the motorcycle at an intersection, causing him to collide with the front right corner of her vehicle, Richland Police Department’s Commander of Investigations Damon Jansen said.Washington State Troopers first arrived on the scene and performed “life-saving measures” on Sanchez before he was rushed to Kadlec Regional Medical Center — where he was later pronounced dead.Though state troopers assumed investigative responsibility for the fatal crash, they quickly discovered Clasen was an off-duty officer with their department and transferred the investigation over to the Richland Police.Officers “identified several inconsistencies” in her account of the collision, observed Clasen slurring her speech, and noticed she had “glassy eyes” during their initial investigation, Jansen said.Clasen told investigators she was on her way home from picking up a pizza when she began “to turn” and collided with Sanchez, according to an affidavit obtained by the Tri-City Herald.“The motorcycle was almost completely under the front of her vehicle as it rested on the side of the roadway,” Officer Steve Heid wrote in the affidavit.“Sarah told me that the motorcyclist was definitely going faster than the posted speed limit,” Officer Steve Heid wrote in the affidavit.However, Heid noted she had a clear view of oncoming traffic and believes that “an attentive driver should have been able to see the motorcyclist” before causing the collision.Heid believed he smelled alcohol and a...