Not guilty plea in DUI crash

SANDPOINT — A Laclede man accused of plowing his car into a van and injuring five people pleaded not guilty Monday in 1st District Court.

John Douglas Kuhn is charged with two counts of aggravated drunken driving. His two-day jury trial is set for Sept. 13.

Idaho State Police said Kuhn was driving eastbound on U.S. Highway 2 when he crashed into the back of a Chevrolet Express van on the western outskirts of Priest River on June 22. The force of the collision knocked the van off the highway, where it struck and embankment three times, overturned and came to rest on its wheels.

A Bonner County sheriff’s deputy who happened to be conducting radar patrol in the area clocked Kuhn’s Honda Accord at 96 mph moments before the collision, court records indicate.

A passenger in the van, Kiersten Sprick, a 21-year-old from Sammamish, Wash., suffered numerous injuries including a cervical vertebrae fracture, a pinched brain artery and a fractured sternum.

Also injured in the crash where the van’s driver, Mary F. Pearson, 54, of Redmond, Wash.; passenger Caitlin Pankratz, 18, of Bothell, Wash.; Kelsie L. Jelsema, 18, of Bothell; and 17-year-old whose name was not released because she is a minor.

Kuhn, 65, was also injured and was arrested upon his discharge from Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene. Immediately after the crash, Kuhn admitted to a state trooper that he had consumed alcohol earlier. Kuhn’s blood was drawn, although the results of the test have not been disclosed in court documents.

The charges rose to the felony level because two passengers suffered great bodily harm.

Kuhn is free on $10,000 bail while the case is pending and conditions of his pretrial release prohibit from driving or consuming alcohol.

Kuhn was also ordered to under periodic testing to monitor his compliance with the alcohol prohibition.