A retired Newport Beach policewoman has been convicted of killing a dude and injuring three others in San Diego County.
Jurors found Katherine Ann Heinzel, 51, of Winchester, guilty of three felonies, including vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, for a fatal drunken-driving crash last November on I-15 in Fallbrook.
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Heinzel was one of seven former and current Newport Beach policewomen who settled a discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against the city for $1.2 million in 1994, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Heinzel was awarded $150,000 and allowed to take disability retirement.
Now, she is looking at the possibility of spending 19 years of her retirement behind bars, reports North County Times.
She rear-ended a Toyota Camry around 1:50 a.m. Nov. 19, with her car and the Camry crashing through a freeway guardrail and down a steep embankment, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Davieonne Dwayne Kelly, the Camry's 20-year-old driver, died at the scene. Heinzel and Kelly's 19-year-old passenger sustained moderate injuries, while another 20-year-old in the Camry was hurt critically.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.