CdA woman pleads not guilty to crashes

A woman accused of crashing her vehicle and stealing another vehicle that contained children, who escaped before that vehicle also crashed, has denied wrongdoing.

Kara Powers, 34, of Coeur d’Alene, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to felony counts of grand theft, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and leaving the scene of an injury accident, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.

Police say Powers was driving a Mercedes sport utility vehicle on the wrong side of the road in January 2014 when she struck another vehicle being driven by a 61-year-old woman.

A concerned citizen, Sheri Bullock, of Coeur d’Alene, pulled over to check out the crash.

Police said Powers got into Bullock’s Volvo containing Bullock’s three children and tried to drive away. But Bullock said her son struck Powers and the children escaped.

Police said Powers drove the Volvo at a high speed before rear-ending a Dodge pickup, causing both vehicles to roll multiple times. The driver of the pickup, 48-year-old William Akin, was seriously injured.

Police said they found several pills on the floorboard of Powers’ vehicle.

“With regards to what had happened that morning, Powers told me she vaguely recalls waking, going into the bathroom, dumping all her pills down the drain for unknown reasons, (and) does recall taking one of her pain pills before dumping the rest,” a detective’s report states.

Jim Siebe, Powers’ attorney, said Powers shouldn’t face criminal prosecution because she was taking medication for physical ailments, and was hospitalized for viral meningitis in 2014.

“We believe that the driving was an unconscious act; an episode of sleep driving brought on by the combination factors described above or as the result of a lingering infection,” Siebe told the newspaper in an email.