BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – Two civil lawsuits have been filed in Benton County Superior Court by Tamaki Law on behalf of the families of Jhoser Sanchez and Antonio Aguirre, both of whom were killed in DUI-related crashes on March 1.
The first wrongful death lawsuit targets Matthew Mason, who was involved in a head-on crash that resulted in the death of Antonio Aguirre. The second lawsuit is against Washington State Patrol Trooper Sarah Clasen for her involvement in the crash that killed Jhoser Sanchez.
Both defendants are alleged to have been under the influence at the time of the crashes, which occurred within 30 minutes of each other in Richland.
Jeff Kreutz, a partner at Tamaki Law representing Sanchez’s family, explained their ongoing preparations for Trooper Clasen’s trial.
“We’ve issued public records request for any investigative documents that are generated by the State Patrol,” Kreutz said. “As those move forward, we anticipate that at some point, we’ll have an opportunity to question the defendant, Miss Clasen.”
Body cam footage from Clasen’s arrest revealed she denied voluntary breathalyzer and sobriety tests at the scene but later had her blood drawn. Kreutz noted the investigation is still gathering evidence and they plan to estimate Clasen’s blood alcohol content at the time of the crash.
“There’s a black box in her vehicle that we are trying to acquire to gauge her speed and reaction time,” Kruetz said. He mentioned that a toxicology expert might be hired to determine her blood alcohol level at the time of the collision.
“A scientist who can look at the blood alcohol content level at the time it was taken in this instance, many hours after the collision. And based upon body weight, gender, age, height, external factors, temperature, food intake, those types of things you can extrapolate backwards to determine a reasonable level of what the blood alcohol, alcohol content was at the time of the collision.
Regarding Matthew Mason, Megan Chang-Ngaruiya, another partner at Tamaki Law and attorney for Aguirre’s family, mentioned challenges in acquiring evidence.
“One thing that is a challenge when we handle the civil side of things is that file from the police department is not released until the investigation is finalized,” she said.
Neither Clasen nor Mason have defense counsel named for these civil proceedings. Both lawsuits are set to begin trial next March. Mason is scheduled for a court appearance on Wednesday for his arraignment.
NonStop Local has reached out to Larry Haskell’s office, the special prosecutor assigned to Clasen’s criminal case, for further information on potential criminal charges. There has been no response yet.
