Charges dismissed against Cambria man whose ‘extremely scary’ crash into bakery injured 5
A Cambria man whose defense attorney says suffered a medical emergency before crashing into a bakery in 2017, injuring several people, is no longer facing criminal charges over the incident.
Jeremy Ian Preston was facing two felonies, reckless driving causing injury and DUI causing injury, as well as several sentencing enhancements due to the injuries suffered by five patrons of the French Corner Bakery in Cambria.
But on June 30, almost three and a half years since the collision, a prosecutor with the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office made a motion to a judge to dismiss all charges in the interest of justice.
San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jesse Marino granted the motion and dismissed the case.
Preston, 43, had been out of San Luis Obispo County Jail on bail since shortly after the incident, court records show.
His defense attorney said following Tuesday’s hearing that his client was not driving impaired on the morning of the crash, but rather suffered some sort of medical emergency.
Ilan Funke Bilu said that he was gratified that the District Attorney’s Office “has made the right decision.”
“My client suffered from a serious medical condition which caused this tragedy,” Funke-Bilu said. “We feel terrible for the suffering of the injured parties, but their injuries were the result of an unfortunate accident, not a crime.”
Cambria man had ‘blacked out’ while driving
At a preliminary hearing in September 2019, a CHP officer testified that just before 8 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2017, Preston was driving a pickup truck eastbound on Main Street in downtown Cambria at between 50 and 60 mph when he ran a stop sign at Burton Drive and slammed into a parked car in the French Corner Bakery parking lot.
The impact sent both vehicles into another parked car and into the western-facing side of occupied building.
The CHP officer testified that he interviewed a dazed Preston after the crash, and Preston told him he had taken a sleep aid, anti-seizure medication and an anti-depressant just prior to the incident.
The officer also testified that Preston told him he had recently had two other “black-out” episodes while driving, in which he came to stopped on the side of the road.
A breathalyzer and blood alcohol test came back negative, even though a half-empty bottle of vodka was found inside the vehicle. The CHP referred the case to prosecutors as a DUI.
Another CHP officer testified that a combination of three moving violations Preston allegedly committed — speeding , running a stop sign and making unsafe turning movements — also constituted reckless driving.
Preston suffered a broken foot in the crash, according to testimony, and was taken to a nearby hospital.
Crash into French Corner Bakery was ‘extremely scary’
Asked about the sudden close to the case, assistant district attorney Eric Dobroth said June 30 that earlier this year, Funke-Bilu filed “a significant amount of new discovery, in the form of hundreds of pages of documents, that created reasonable doubt as to the criminal culpability of Mr. Preston.”
Court records show that the defense also filed letters from the San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Department, though records containing medical and mental health information are not publicly disclosable.
A new prosecutor, deputy district attorney Benjamin Blumenthal, also took over the case as it approached its third year after the original prosecutor, Stephen Wagner, left the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office in June 2019.
Steve Kelly, one of the patrons in the French Corner Bakery at the time of the crash, told The Tribune he was sitting at a table with his wife and facing the window when he saw Preston’s truck veering toward the building.
Kelly’s wife had her back to the window, and was seriously hurt when Preston’s vehicle sent the other car crashing through the wall.
She was one of at least three people transported to the hospital for their injuries, and Kelly said she spent four days in the facility and required a blood transfusion, but thankfully not surgery.
“It was an extremely scary event,” he said.
Kelly said he and other victims in the case were notified by Blumenthal that new evidence had been submitted in the case that raised questions about whether prosecutors could prove the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
Kelly, who said he is not aware of the contents of the new documents, said he’s disappointed with the decision to dismiss the case and feels that Preston has not taken responsibility.
“I’m sure none of (the victims) are happy this was dropped,” he said.
Also speaking about the decision, bakery co-owner Miguel Viveros said, “I don’t think it’s right, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
But Cambria resident Ruth Armstrong, a bakery customer who was seriously injured in the crash, said she’s at peace with resolution of the case.
Armstrong’s leg was broken in at least four places and it took more than three hours of surgery to repair the damage. She spent weeks in a wheelchair.
Armstrong said that she understands that crash-related expenses incurred by her as well as other injured patrons and the owners of the bakery and building were covered by their insurance policies, including a pain-and-suffering award in her case.
She added that, as the former wife of a law professor who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the mother of an attorney, she understands the dynamics of the law.
The case result “is normal,” Armstrong said. “They’re following the way the law works. It’s not always what you want. There’s nothing to be done about it.”
Armstrong said Preston ”apologized to me about a year ago or two. He was working at Bridge Street Café as a dishwasher.”
“(He) got down on his hands and knees and begged for my forgiveness,” she said. “He’s acknowledging it, so what more could I ask for? I always try to look at the bright side of things.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 1:49 PM.
