$1 Million Bail For Woman Accused In Officer's Death
Mary Jane Rivas, 31 and a six-time felon, is expected to be charged with vehicular homicide by Monday.
According to a probable cause statement filed in King County Superior Court, two other police officers saw Rivas' black GMC Yukon speed along Yesler Way and slam into a cruiser driven by rookie cop Joselito Barber, 26, at about 4 a.m. Sunday.
The officers said that when they reached the scene, Rivas was sitting in the passenger seat, saying that she hadn't been driving. Instead, she told them a woman named Wendy McCool had been at the wheel, and fled, the statement said.
However, marks on Rivas' body suggested she was wearing a driver-side seatbelt at the time of the crash, wrote Seattle Police Detective Timothy DeVore.
Rivas, who was treated at Harborview Medical Center for a broken left leg and broken left foot, appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of her arrest, and drugs were found in her possession, DeVore wrote.
Rivas' attorney, David Seawell, said Thursday that the prosecutor's office should have filed the probable cause statement filed within 48 hours of her arrest Sunday. He declined to comment further.
Rivas, who has used at least 11 aliases, has been in and out of prison since 1995 for possession of stolen property, attempting to elude police, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of heroin and methamphetamine, all in the Seattle area.
Last September, according to prosecutors and court records in Snohomish County, Everett police found crack cocaine on her during a traffic stop.