Woman charged in fatal March crash

Posted 8/4/15

Beverly O. Keenan made her first appearance in Park County Circuit Court last week on that misdemeanor charge and another misdemeanor count of failing to obey a stop sign.

Keenan pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Keenan is alleged to have …

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Woman charged in fatal March crash

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A 76-year-old Cowley resident has been charged with vehicular homicide in connection with allegations that she caused a fatal car crash in March.

Beverly O. Keenan made her first appearance in Park County Circuit Court last week on that misdemeanor charge and another misdemeanor count of failing to obey a stop sign.

Keenan pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Keenan is alleged to have driven through a Lane 5 stop sign at a high rate of speed, entered Wyo. Highway 295 and hit the rear driver’s side of a station wagon driven by Powell resident Pat Miller. Miller, 70, died in the crash.

Keenan has told authorities that she had a sneezing fit shortly before the incident, charging documents say.

At last week’s court hearing, Judge Bruce Waters ordered Keenan not to drive while the case is pending, with a lone exception for medical appointments.

Prosecutors had asked that Keenan be completely prohibited from driving, while Keenan said that, beyond doctor’s appointments, she also needed to drive to get groceries and to get to work in Cody so she can keep paying her bills.

“I have to be able to drive,” she told the judge. “I can’t walk far enough to even go to the post office.”

In imposing the limits, Waters said it was “important to do this for the protection of the general public.”

“This is a public safety issue, a public safety concern that I need to be worried about — and I think that somewhat overrides your individual needs, from my perspective,” Waters said.

The crash occurred around 6 p.m. on March 21.

A driver who witnessed the incident reportedly told Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Walker that Keenan appeared to be going around 55 miles per hour as she approached the intersection.

Keenan later said she’d set her cruise control at 55 miles per hour and estimated she was driving 40-45 miles per hour when she hit Miller’s vehicle, Walker wrote in an affidavit filed in support of the charges.

“She told me that she frequently travels that road and was aware of the stop sign at the intersection,” Walker wrote. Keenan said she’d planned to turn left at the intersection and head toward Powell, but “she began to violently sneeze and was ‘out of it,’” trooper Walker recounted in the affidavit.

Keenan’s 2010 Corolla spun completely around and ended up in a drainage ditch on the other side of the intersection. Miller’s 1987 Subaru station wagon was knocked off the road, spun completely around and then rolled one and a quarter times, Walker wrote.

Keenan, who was wearing a seat belt, received minor injuries and her small dog was uninjured, Walker’s affidavit says. Miller was not wearing a seat belt and her vehicle did not have airbags, the affidavit says.

The vehicular homicide charge alleges that Keenan caused Miller’s death by driving her Toyota Corolla “in a criminally negligent manner.” Loosely paraphrased, Wyoming law defines criminal negligence as being when a person fails to realize that their actions pose “a substantial and unjustifiable risk” — a risk significant enough that failing to recognize it is “a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.”

In asking that Keenan be barred from driving while the case is pending, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Blatt cited “a really lengthy history of some driving issues.”

According to Blatt, Keenan was involved in crashes in 1999, 2000 and 2004 and was warned about or cited for her driving several other times in more recent years.

“That is quite a history that causes a lot of concern,” Judge Waters said later. “Of course, this case causes a lot of concern.”

Keenan’s defense attorney, Michael Messenger of Messenger & Overfield in Thermopolis, said there were “reasons” for some of the tickets Keenan has received in the past.

“I recognize the state’s concern here,” Messenger said, but “perhaps this ought to be left with the Department of Transportation as to whether she should be able to continue to drive or not.”

Keenan said she’d had no driving problems since March.

Judge Waters noted there had been “quite a delay” between the crash and the filing of charges at the end of June; Blatt suggested it just took that long for the case to make it to and through the county attorney’s office.

Keenan was released on a signature bond, with a trial tentatively set for Sept. 24.

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