PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge set $100,000 bail Monday for the woman investigated for drunken driving when the pickup truck she was driving crashed into another near Joyce on Sunday morning, killing a Port Angeles nurse.
Amber D. Steim, 24, of Port Angeles will be charged Wednesday in Clallam County Superior Court.
She is being held in Clallam County jail on investigation of vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol.
Steim was convicted of first-degree negligent driving in another incident in January.
She also struck a pedestrian while driving at night in Port Angeles in 2007 but was never charged with a crime in that incident, after which the pedestrian died.
State Patrol troopers said Steim, a restaurant waitress, was driving westbound in a 2005 Toyota pickup truck at 7:54 a.m. Sunday when it crossed the centerline and struck a 1994 Chevrolet S-10 pickup driven by Ellen J. DeBondt, 44, on state Highway 112 at Oxenford Road between Port Angeles and Joyce.
DeBondt, a registered nurse for Olympic Medical Center’s home health agency, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Steim and her passenger, Nicole E. Boucher, 27, were treated for minor injuries.
According to the arresting affidavit, Trooper Grant Clark said he believed Steim was under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both.
Troopers said they could detect the odor of intoxicants coming from inside Steim’s truck.
“Steim’s speech was soft and slow, but she stated that she had consumed no alcohol today or the previous night, blaming the odor on her intoxicated passenger,” Clark wrote in his report.
After Steim was removed from the pickup and placed on a medical backboard, she admitted to having one Rainier beer at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, court records show.
Troopers said Steim refused to perform field sobriety tests, including a portable breath test to determine blood-alcohol content, and her speech was slurred. A blood sample was taken at 8:50 a.m.
“They did take blood there at the scene, and it’s just a matter of waiting to get those results back,” said Trooper Krista Hedstrom, State Patrol spokeswoman.
“It will probably take a month or so. I don’t know exactly how long.”
Steim was charged with physical control of a vehicle under the influence after a Nov. 20 incident in Port Angeles. (A request for the police report is pending with the Port Angeles Police Department.)
The physical control charge was reduced to first-degree negligent driving, and Steim was found guilty Jan. 25.
While driving an Acura Integra in September 2007, Steim struck a pedestrian, Irene Harris, at the intersection of Front and Albert streets in Port Angeles.
Harris, 44, died from her injuries the next day at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Steim was never charged with a crime in that incident.
Police at the time said Harris was wearing dark clothing and walked into the crosswalk without looking up.
Steim made her court appearance Monday wearing a green shirt and shackles.
She listened as lawyers made their arguments over the bail.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said he requested the $100,000 bail based on Steim’s prior history.
“She has a charge of physical control from November of 2010, which was later reduced to negligent driving in the first degree, but alcohol driving in the very near past,” Troberg told Judge George L. Wood. “So that’s very concerning.”
Troberg also cited a first-degree negligent driving case from 2005.
“Looking at this case, it appeared that Ms. Steim, frankly, was driving while intoxicated and simply crossed the centerline and hit the other vehicle head on,” Troberg said.
Troberg noted Steim refused the field sobriety test but “made some admissions about drinking.”
Defense attorney Karen Unger, who may defend Steim as the case develops, countered that Steim has one prior alcohol-related driving conviction and was never charged in the pedestrian accident.
“I don’t believe that she has any other alcohol-related convictions related to driving other than a negligent driving in the first degree that was resolved several months ago,” Unger said.
“The fatality that she was involved in in 2007 — she was completely cleared.
“That had nothing to do with alcohol, drugs, nothing. In fact, I believe there were letters written to her from the victim’s family to let her know that it wasn’t her fault.”
Unger said Sunday’s wreck was “certainly tragic enough” as she argued for a lesser bail.
“I’m not trying to in any way minimize the seriousness of this,” Unger said. “We don’t know what happened.”
Vehicular homicide is a Class A felony that carries a maximum punishment of life in prison and $50,000 fine.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
