White: Disappointment, but no regrets with case

Email this story Print this story Archives

No comments posted.

By MARK GUNDERMAN mark.gunderman@lee.net
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 10:57 AM CDT

HUDSON — Eau Claire County District Attorney Rich White lost a high-profile case Monday that consumed an enormous amount of his time and the time of other court officials. But he would not second-guess himself about bringing it to trial.

Negligent homicide cases are difficult, White said after the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all charges against Michael Kozlowski in the Chi-Hi band bus crash case.

White said for him to charge a criminal negligence case, he has to have something besides the ordinary negligence anyone might be guilty of through an oversight or simply mistake.

He thought he had it in this case with Kozlowski’s pattern of driving with insufficient sleep, leading up to being fatigued on the night of the crash. White contended Kozlowski fell asleep and overturned his semi truck in the middle of Interstate 94, just a few miles north of Osseo.

“You always have that struggle and that argument about whether charges should be brought,” White said.

“As disappointing as the outcome is, as time consuming as the case was, I made a decision at the beginning to charge Mr. Kozlowski because I felt he should be charged.”

White said the jury may well have thought that the facts did not support a criminal negligence charge.

But the case also had the complicating factor of the “secondary collision” of the bus with the truck. That brought in other factors such as bus driver Paul Rasmus, whom the defense tried to blame for the entire “second” accident.

The jury needed to find not only that Kozlowski was criminally negligent, but that his negligence was the “substantial cause” of the deaths and injuries. The defense argued that Rasmus’ alleged negligence was the substantial cause.

“They (the jury) must have been more sympathetic to that claim,” White said.

But the jury’s verdict does not mean that certain things connected with the case did not happen, like Kozlowski not getting sufficient rest, White said.

Asked whether justice was served in the case, White said, “Justice is served with a verdict in any case. If you believe in the system, you have to be willing to live with the results of the system.”