Judge declines reduced bail for manslaughter suspect

SANDPOINT — District Judge Steve Verby is rejecting a vehicular manslaughter suspect’s second request for reduced bail.

William David Deardorff remains held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bail. His five-day jury trial is scheduled to start in 1st District Court on June 8.

Along with the felony manslaughter charge, Deardorff is also charged with aggravated drunken driving in connection with the Dec. 3, 2008, crash on U.S. Highway 95 in Careywood.

Chief Deputy Public Defender Janet Whitney argued on Tuesday that Deardorff has a degenerative back condition and would seek treatment at a Veterans Affairs hospital in eastern Washington, according to court documents. Whitney said Deardorff would also submit to ethyl glucuronide testing, also known as EtG testing.

EtG is a metabolite of alcoholic beverages and its presence in urine can be used to detect alcohol consumption.

Whitney asked for Deardorff’s bond to be set at $75,000.

Prosecutor Louis Marshall objected to a further reduction in Deardorff’s bail, which originally stood at half a million dollars but was subsequently reduced. Marshall based his objection on the seriousness of the offense and Deardorff’s prior criminal history, court records indicate.

Deardorff has been arrested more than 40 times since the late 1970s for various traffic offenses, including drunken driving, according to a tally listed in an Idaho State Police report.

In other developments in the case, Verby approved $2,560 in investigative funds so the defense can retain a crash reconstructionist to probe the crash and testify as an expert witness if need be.

Deardorff, a 53-year-old from Spokane, Wash., was driving southbound on the highway in a Chevrolet pickup truck when he drifted into oncoming traffic. His rig collided with a northbound Jeep Cherokee driven by Crystal Bertolucci, 31, of Sandpoint.

Bertolucci was seriously injured, resulting in the felony DUI charge. A front-seat passenger in Bertolucci’s sport utility vehicle, 44-year-old Kimberlee Dingman, was fatally injured in the head-on collision.

Deardorff’s blood alcohol content was measured at 0.12, well over the state’s legal limit of 0.08, court documents said.

Deardorff pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this year. If convicted of the manslaughter charge, he faces up to 15 years in prison.