6/28/08 (MN):
DNA May Exonerate Accused Bus Driver
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DNA from the woman accused of being the driver of the van in a fatal school bus crash wasn't found on materials collected from the van's two front air bags, her attorneys have said.
Instead, the tests showed DNA from an unidentified male.
The attorneys, speaking after a court hearing on the case, said they consider the findings significant because they believe that had Olga Franco been the driver, her DNA would likely have been found on the driver's airbag.
Franco has contended that her boyfriend, Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, was behind the wheel but fled after the crash. He has not been found.
Franco was in the passenger seat, her attorneys argue, and was thrown part way into the driver's seat on impact, resulting in an airbag hitting her only on the shoulder.
Defense attorney Manuel Guerrero, said a recent state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension report found that blood stains on both airbags came from an unidentified man. Cells from skin or spittle found on the passenger airbag belong to that same man, he said.
"It's our opinion that it was the boyfriend whose blood they found, as well as the skin cells on the airbags,'' Guerrero told reporters.
Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes declined to comment on Friday.
"I'll try the case in the courtroom. That's where it should be tried," Maes said. "I think it's unfortunate that Mr. Guerrero has taken this approach, but I'm not going to."
Maes told the Marshall Independent in April that he was unaware of "any information that would even remotely suggest that there was a different driver." He said Franco was in the driver's seat and had to be extricated.
Franco, a Guatemalan, has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide, criminal vehicular injury and other charges related to the Feb. 19 crash, which killed four children. The van broadsided a Cottonwood school bus carrying 28 students from Lakeview School.
© X-Pro 2008
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