Former combat medic whose pickup grazed trooper avoids felony

Sat., March 22, 2014

Jeremy Pawloski Olympian

A judge sentenced a former Marine combat medic to 30 days electronic home monitoring Friday for failing to stop in the pickup he was driving after it grazed a Washington State Patrol trooper who had exited her patrol car on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 101.

Trooper Tricia Krantz suffered a hip and spinal injury after being struck by a vehicle driven by Matthew Nye on April 15, 2013, on U.S. 101 near Mud Bay.

Had the pickup been just inches closer to Krantz as she walked back to her patrol car during her traffic stop, she said she would have been killed.

“I’m just happy I’m alive,” she said outside court Friday.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch ordered Nye’s 30-day electronic home monitoring sentence Friday after it was jointly recommended by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Wheeler and Nye’s defense attorney, G. Saxon Rodgers.

Nye does not have to begin his 30-day electronic home monitoring sentence until September, because he is allowed to continue his work as a commercial fisherman in Alaska this spring and summer.

Nye, 27, pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanor reckless driving and misdemeanor hit and run. Originally, Thurston County prosecutors had charged Nye with felony hit and run.

Nye had no prior criminal history until the incident with the WSP trooper last year.

Krantz said in court she’s “not very happy” Wheeler agreed to the plea deal that allowed Nye to avoid a felony. “He’s very lucky he’s not in prison,” Krantz said.

Nye apologized to Krantz in court but said he had no idea he had struck her. “My hat’s off to you for the job that you do,” he added.

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