No charges for firefighter

The county prosecutor’s office has decided not to pursue charges against a Spokane firefighter involved in a triple-fatal crash earlier this year, officials confirmed Thursday.

“Based on the evidence of the case, we do not have enough evidence of impairment to go forward with the vehicular homicide charge,” said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor John Grasso.

On Jan. 20, Dave Batty clipped the rear of a van on U.S. Highway 2, sending it spinning into an oncoming pickup. Killed were Gregory Stueck, 37; Kalen Hearn, 22; and Michael Edwards, 51.

With three people dead, the prosecutor’s office had to look at the case very closely, said Batty’s attorney, Michael Roff. “I think they realized this was not a homicide.”

The prosecutor’s office hasn’t decided whether to issue Batty a traffic citation, Grasso said.

Hearn’s mother, Mara Hearn, learned of the prosecutor’s decision on Wednesday.

“If he is indeed innocent then I’m at peace with that,” Mara Hearn said. “I wouldn’t want to prosecute an innocent man. This is just tragic; very, very tragic.”

Grasso said of the decision: “We had the drug recognition expert determine that there was no evidence of impairment. There were some drugs in his system. But Barry Logan, who is the state toxicologist, said he could not reach a conclusion that Batty was impaired.”

Batty, a lieutenant with the Spokane Fire Department, has been on medical leave since Aug. 28 due to an on-the-job injury. He told crash scene investigators he was under a doctor’s care and had been prescribed two painkillers, a muscle relaxant and a sleep aid following back surgery.

According to the 580-page investigative report, the last medication he’d taken was the night before the crash.

Because of Batty’s past, the case was carefully scrutinized, officials said.

Batty was convicted of vehicular homicide in 1993. He lost control of his pickup and swerved in front of a Jeep headed south on Highway 2 near Elk in September 1992, The Spokesman-Review previously reported. The Jeep’s driver, David Cole, 49, of Newport, died at the scene. Batty’s blood alcohol level was 0.24 percent.

Batty, who has been with the Fire Department since 1983, was reinstated after he got out of prison in 1995 by then-City Manager Roger Crum.

“I have a client who has been a fireman for a long time and made a mistake in his life,” Roff said. “That came back to kick his butt, and that’s why they looked this case over so closely.”

Hearn said she felt confident of the prosecutor’s decision: “I feel very assured that the prosecutor’s office and the detectives looked at this from every angle.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Hearn said. “Now we can get some closure.”

Clint Francis, the lead prosecutor on the Batty case, and Grasso have been talking about this case since receiving it.

“We have gone back and forth on this thing and spent a lot of time analyzing the reports,” Grasso said. On Wednesday, the two met with Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker and Chief Criminal Prosecutor Jack Driscoll.

“The determination was made after that meeting that we could not go forward,” Grasso said. “He (Tucker) also believed based upon our presentation that the charge of vehicular homicide just wasn’t there. Jack also concurred.”

On the morning of Jan. 20, Batty was headed to Spokane to meet with his daughter. The three men in the van had just helped a friend move and were living at the Lord’s Ranch in Newport, a nonprofit religion-based transitional home for people trying to beat drug and alcohol addictions.

The roadways were covered with compacted snow and ice.

“All of the driving by all the vehicles was well under the posted speed limit, commensurate with the conditions at the time,” Grasso said.

“I think we have Batty’s version of events, which seem to be consistent with the physical evidence,” Grasso said. “He was driving behind the van with the three men in it. It appears they slowed down, and he didn’t react in time. He tried to go in the ditch and clipped the passenger side rear corner and forced the other vehicle (the van) into the oncoming lane of traffic.”