Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — After unprecedented turnout to Amber Steim’s March 18 hearing, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams says that future hearings — including one Thursday — will move to a larger courtroom.
Audience members will be allowed in on a first come, first served basis.
Steim, 24, of Port Angeles has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and witness tampering in connection with a March 6 crash on state Highway 112 between Joyce and Port Angeles.
She is free on $100,000 bond.
She is accused of being drunk when the pickup truck she was driving crossed the centerline and struck another pickup truck head-on.
The driver of the other vehicle, Ellen J. DeBondt, 44, a nurse with Olympic Medical Center’s home health agency, died at the scene.
Steim had minor injuries and was treated at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
Her passenger, Nicole Boucher, also had minor injuries and was driven from the scene by a friend or family.
80 pack courtroom
Steim’s hearing on March 18 drew more than 80 people to Clallam County Courthouse Courtroom II, which seats 68 people.
Williams said if her next hearing on Thursday at 1 p.m. draws similar interest, the session will move to the larger Courtroom I, which accommodates an audience of 80.
“We have fire code limits so we’ll move to the larger courtroom, and if we exceed those limits people will be allowed in on a first-come, first-served basis,” he said.
“Some people will have priority — family probably and other people pertinent to the case.
“It is a public courtroom and court proceedings are open, but we have codes we have to follow.”
Friday proceedings
The March 18 hearing fell on a Friday, a day when there are traditionally large numbers of people up for status and motion hearings for other cases, so the room was already more full than normal.
If Steim is convicted on the vehicular homicide charge, she faces a sentence between 31 and 41 months in prison and a $50,000 fine.
The crime of vehicular homicide carries a sentence of up to life in prison, but because Steim has a low-offender score, the sentence limit is 41 months, said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg.
The witness-tampering charge — she allegedly contacted Boucher to fabricate an excuse involving alcohol — carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Because of the attention the case has received, Steim’s attorney Ralph Anderson said he intends to file a motion to move the trial to a different county.
That motion is scheduled to be heard at Thursday’s hearing.
