PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to revoke Amber D. Steim’s conditions of release after an alcohol monitoring device she was wearing detected an “alcohol consumption event” Oct. 29 and 30, court papers said.
A hearing on the motion is set for 9 a.m. Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court.
Steim, 24, is accused of driving nearly three times over the legal limit when she crossed the centerline of state Highway 112 and crashed her pickup into a vehicle driven by Ellen DeBondt — killing the 44-year-old — east of Joyce on March 6.
Prosecutors charged the Port Angeles woman with vehicular homicide and witness tampering.
Police said she allegedly had a 0.239 percent blood-alcohol level and allegedly phoned the passenger in her vehicle and her mother from jail to tell them to say she drank alcohol after the wreck because she was in pain.
The legal limit in Washington is 0.08 percent.
Steim pleaded not guilty to the charges and posted $100,000 bail March 16.
Condition of release
As part of her conditions of release, she was ordered not to drink alcohol, to wear an alcohol-detection bracelet, to abide a curfew and to refrain from driving.
According to court papers, the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, device that Steim is required to wear detected a peak blood-alcohol level of 0.058 percent at 1:14 a.m. Oct. 30.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly attached a SCRAM noncompliance report from Friendship Diversion Services to her motion to revoke Steim’s conditions of release.
The motion was filed last Thursday.
Kelly said she anticipates the court will schedule a fact-finding hearing before making a ruling on the motion.
She said it will be “up to the judge” whether Steim goes back to jail before her trial.
The one-week trial was rescheduled in July for Dec. 5.
Kelly wrote in her motion that Steim said she had a hair tinting session Oct. 28 that resulted in a false positive.
After no alcohol was detected the morning of Oct. 29, the alcohol-detection bracelet began to detect alcohol at 6:42 p.m. that day, according to the non-compliance report .
Kelly said a panel reviewed the readings and confirmed an “alcohol consumption event.”
A follow-up test Oct. 31 found no drugs in Steim’s system.
Signed an agreement
Steim signed an agreement March 16 that reads in part: “I am to remain drug- and alcohol-free while serving the Scram Monitoring sentence.”
Kelly said an earlier motion to sever the witness tampering charge from the vehicular homicide charge has been denied.
Kelly took over the case from Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg after a recent case shuffle in the Prosecutor’s Office, Troberg said.
DeBondt was killed instantly in the morning wreck while she was on her way to work.
The Crescent Bay woman was a registered nurse for Olympic Medical Home Health.
Friends and family remembered DeBondt as an “eternal optimist” who was athletic, adventurous and lived each day to its fullest.
She was survived by her husband, Ken; two parents; two brothers; two sisters; four nieces; five nephews; in-laws; and a large circle of friends.
DeBondt had visited the North Olympic Peninsula for years before she moved to Crescent Bay in 2008.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
