PORT ANGELES — A hearing will be held in Clallam County Superior Court next month on whether Amber Steim, accused of vehicular homicide, should have a witness tampering charge dropped.
Steim, 24, is charged in the March 6 death of Ellen J. DeBondt of Crescent Beach.
She was also charged with tampering with a witness for allegedly phoning the passenger in her vehicle and her mother from jail March 7 and telling them to say she drank alcohol after the wreck because she was in pain.
“The legal significance, of course, is that would completely throw off the validity of the blood-alcohol test, which was taken after the fact,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said in March.
Steim’s attorney, William Payne, filed a motion to have that charge dismissed and the phone call suppressed Wednesday.
A hearing on the matter will be held Sept. 9.
Payne wrote in his motion that the recording of the conversation violated Steim’s privacy.
Steim will be tried Dec. 5 for the March 6 wreck that killed DeBondt on state Highway 112 between Joyce and Port Angeles.
Steim had a blood-alcohol level of 0.239 percent after the wreck, police said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
