Vehicular homicide charge in state park ranger's death
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. - A Silverdale man has been charged with vehicular homicide in the February crash that killed state park ranger Edward Johanson near Seabeck.
Charles K. Sherman, 35, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Kitsap County District Court.
The Kitsap Sun reports prosecutors have been waiting for the result of toxicology tests taken on the night of the crash that found marijuana and methamphetamine in Sherman's bloodstream.
The 44-year-old Johanson was a ranger for 20 years, serving at Kitsap Memorial State Park and Kanaskat Palmer State Park in the Green River Gorge.
He was driving to his home near Seabeck on Feb. 24 when a Ford Thunderbird crossed the center line and collided with his vehicle, killing him.
Charles K. Sherman, 35, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Kitsap County District Court.
The Kitsap Sun reports prosecutors have been waiting for the result of toxicology tests taken on the night of the crash that found marijuana and methamphetamine in Sherman's bloodstream.
The 44-year-old Johanson was a ranger for 20 years, serving at Kitsap Memorial State Park and Kanaskat Palmer State Park in the Green River Gorge.
He was driving to his home near Seabeck on Feb. 24 when a Ford Thunderbird crossed the center line and collided with his vehicle, killing him.
But Marijuana never killed anyone!......oh wait....
 @PacificNWRunner Yup, the pot did it.  The meth was just there hanging around doing nothing.
hang the POS
When someone commits a felony, there is add-on sentencing if a gun is involved. There should be add-on sentencing if alcohol and/or drugs are involved in vehicular homicide. How about a little common sense, legislators?
....for the umpteenth time, why do we not charge people like Mr. Sherman with MURDER. He will only get two to four under the current sentencing guidelines.
You drive lit, you MURDER, you should get mandatory minimum of 20 years...period..
 @Sydthepiper You don't have the facts to make that statement. Your just one of the many reactionary sheep that bleet themselves hoarse here.
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You are a crappy troll and komo continues to feed you by pumping out their objective perspective with zero accountability towards informing the public an unbiased opinion.
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 @Mesh WTF are you talking about...please, my dear friend...contradict my facts...VH in this State only, until recently, gets one who murders 2 years in the pen. The max range now is only four years.
Yes, my opinion is biased....I hate & despise those who murder while tanked.
No troll, TRUE perspective, real fact.
 @Sydthepiper You are correct in that he has not been convicted of this yet and these facts are only from police reports of which I am sure they are not sharing all of the information that they had.  I'm sure they had more than enough reason to run those tests to begin with.  Likely he failed the field sobriety test miserably.  Let's get real here, Syd...the guy was not "just a bad driver."  Although who knows, maybe we'll find out he was texting while he was at it.
@Mesh @PacificNWRunner..... Methinks the point is: Some dirtbag tweeker, through his own inattention, recklessness, failure to maintain his vehicle, get enough sleep or because he was plain stoned out of his gourd, took the life of a fine, upstanding, unsuspecting and utterly innocent citizen.
 @PacificNWRunner There are a thousand and one driver faults that could have been the cause.
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You are also a band waggoning idiot.
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Do you swallow every last morsel they pump out here without at least vetting the published material for complete disclosure of fact?
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The obfuscation of media, and our cultural absence of a gag reflex is really doing wonders for us.
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If this were treated as a common alcohol related accident we would have a BAC % we could use to form an opinion.Â
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There have been no references made to any police reports or medical reports stating what the drivers level of intoxication was, only that substances which fall under the class 1 umbrella were detected.
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At no point have we been presented with any information on whether they were trace values or if this guy was geeked out of his mind.
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You facile idiots read the first three words of the article and promptly cry out to the heavens about how absolutely positive you are that he is guilty of impaired driving. and rattle on about death and murder.
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What say you, if it turns out he was texting or otherwise using a cellphone?
Or perhaps took some benadryl for his allergies not knowing that it contains a decently strong sedative?
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All you fools do is swallow and swallow, and I for one hope you choke on it.
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 @Mesh So what are you proposing, a man is dead because this POS was...."a bad driver".... why was he swerving over the center line??? Yeah, couldn't be drugs or alcohol, he was just a bad driver. Yeah let's stick with that. How brave of you.
 @Sydthepiper Your stating that it is a fact that he was under the influence at the time of the accident, when methamphetamine will leave residual traces in your blood system for up to seven years and marijuana depending on your metabolism will be detectable for 30 to 45 days.
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Without disclosure of the ppm he tested for you can not arbitrarily make a statement about punishment and sentencing guidelines.
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You are sitting here soap boxing about murder when you don't have two feet to stand on.
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I wonder what the parts per million values were of the intoxicants in his system.
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I only ask this because KOMO stories have a strong tendency to make declarative statements without full disclosure.
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I wouldn't be surprised either way.