Expert: Mechanical Defect Found In Runaway Camry That Killed Three
Lawyers for man in prison say new report strengthens case to release him.
May 19, 2010 — -- The expert hired by lawyers for a Minnesota man imprisoned for vehicular manslaughter after his speeding Toyota killed three people has filed a report claiming that he has identified a mechanical flaw that could have caused the accident.
"This makes our case even stronger," said Bob Hilliard, an attorney for Koua Fong Lee, 36, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence. Hilliard hopes to convince Ramsey County, Minnesota prosecutors to free Lee from prison pending a new trial.
After inspecting Lee's 1996 Camry, Richard F. Dusek, the Michigan-based expert hired by Hilliard and co-counsel Brent Schafer, has filed an official report stating that the vehicle's throttle cable was stuck and could have held the throttle open, and that analysis of the rear brake light shows that the brakes were depressed at the time of the crash. Lee has always said that his brakes were not working and his accelerator was stuck on the Sunday afternoon in June 2006 when he plowed into a St. Paul intersection at more than 70 MPH and struck another car.
In his report, however, Dusek also expressed concern about the inspection process. Ramsey County hired its own expert to participate in the inspection of the Camry. "I am critical of some of the inspection and measuring methodology that the County's expert used," wrote Dusek. Dusek refused to detail those criticisms to ABC News; Hilliard said the intent was to let the court know that Lee's team has "issues" with how the prosecutor's expert conducted the inspection "but not to tip our hands as to what [those issues] are."
Paul Gustafson, a spokesman from the Ramsey County Attorney's office would not comment on Dusek's report, saying, "We are going to wait for all of the reports to come in and then we will file them in court and then we will talk about them."
Inspection experts for the County Attorney's office – Wade Barrett and Frank Sonye, Jr. -- have not yet released their findings and Gustafson said he did not know when their report would be ready. In his report, Dusek wrote, "The accelerator-to-engine throttle cable and pulley system does not move freely, stays stuck, and does not return to idle position. ... This could have held the throttle open after the accelerator pedal was released for a braking maneuver."
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