DUI trial starts

July 11, 2006

By MARY AMES/Frontiersman

PALMER - The trial of a man who drove a truck over a 100-foot embankment off Schrock Road in October began in Palmer Superior Court Monday afternoon.

Jimmie Dale, 60, faces two charges of first-degree assault and one charge each of DUI, driving with a suspended license and failing to render assistance to injured persons.

In her opening statement, Suzanne Powell, assistant district attorney, said it was a straightforward DUI case.

With two passengers in the front seat, Dale drove his 1993 Ford pickup truck north on Church Road at high speed, about 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, she said.

&#8220He blew through the stop sign at Church and Schrock,” Powell said. &#8220His truck went down a 150-foot embankment, flipped and landed on its roof.”

Powell said it was reckless and potentially deadly to his passengers, Leah Bradford and Lori Osborn, whom he had met earlier that evening.

Dale had been to dinner, where he had two glasses of wine, at a restaurant where Bradford worked, Powell said. Then he met up with both women at Robin's Landing in Big Lake, where he had at least one Long Island iced tea. When they left, Dale drove, Bradford buckled up on the passenger's side and Osborn sat in the middle of the bench seat.

Dale drove up Church Road so fast that both women asked him to slow down, Powell said.

&#8220At one point, Lori Osborn said, ‘Just stop the truck and we'll walk,'” Powell said.

After the crash, Dale left the scene on foot, leaving the two intoxicated women down the embankment.

A man who witnessed Dale's truck leave the road and disappear called 911 about 10:45 p.m.

When fire and rescue personnel arrived, they at first couldn't find the truck. They heard the women screaming, found the wreck and ultimately had to use a pulley system to bring the women up to the road, Powell said.

When Alaska State Troopers arrived at the wreck site, they found Dale about 300 yards down the road, walking away.

Dale told troopers he hadn't been driving, he wasn't in a crash and hadn't been drinking.

&#8220He said he just woke up and started walking,” Powell said.

All three were taken to Valley Hospital, where Bradford was treated for burn marks from her seat belt, Osborn for torn cartilage, and Dale for glass in his left ear and a cut on his lip.

They were lucky to be alive, Powell said.

The roads were dry, according to notes from Greg Pealatere, the first trooper to get to the crash. Pealatere described the embankment on the north side of Schrock Road, just west of the intersection with Church. Pealatere measured skid marks on Church Road, crossing Shrock and continuing through the dirt turn out. The embankment was steep and it was very dark at the bottom, he said.

&#8220I couldn't walk down,” he said. &#8220I had to climb down, holding onto branches and twigs. It was very dark down there, even with all the emergency lights.”

Josh Fannon, Dale's defense attorney, passed on his opening statement, but may deliver one later in the trial.

The level of Dale's impairment as determined by blood samples promised to be a contentious issue. When personnel at Valley Hospital tested Dale's blood, it was a blood-serum sample, but the state crime lab and an independent lab in Washington tested whole blood. Before the trial began, Judge Eric Smith said he couldn't find a single state court case that used blood serum without using a correction factor. Blood serum concentrated the alcohol level, he said, and most cases use a correction factor of 16 percent.

&#8220The 16 percent is arbitrary, but it seems to be the standard used,” he said.

Dale's blood was drawn at 2 a.m., more than three hours after the crash, Powell said. His serum blood-alcohol level at the hospital tested at .088, Powell said. Dale's whole blood, tested at the state crime lab, came in at .08, the legal limit, and his blood at the Washington lab showed .07.

At the Palmer trooper post, Dale's breath alcohol on the Datamaster showed .04 five hours after the crash, she said.

Dale has remained in custody since his October arrest. Court records show no criminal charges in the state for Dale since 1999.

In Fairbanks in 1999, Dale was charged with third-degree misconduct involving weapons, fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, driving with a canceled, suspended or revoked license and failure to register as a sex offender.

In 1998, also in Fairbanks, Dale was charged with failure to register as a sex offender four separate times; driving with a canceled, suspended or revoked license three times; misconduct involving a controlled substance four times; and DWI once.

In 1997, in Fairbanks, Dale was charged with DWI. According to Alaska's sex-offender registry, Dale was convicted of three counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor in Fairbanks in 1988. Dale's sex-offender registry listing shows 16 aliases, including Thomas Dale, Robert Bostic, Jimmy Bostic and Jim Abel.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.