By William McCurry
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Natasha Ogle—evading police, she said, because she didn’t want to get stopped without her driver license—now faces serious felony charges for causing great bodily injury after colliding with another car while driving up to 80 miles an hour on a residential street.
She also has two prior strikes, both for burglary, so this offense would carry her third strike.
According to the facts of the case as presented by the prosecution here in Sacramento County Superior Court this week, on June, 26, 2020, defendant Ogle was spotted by an officer traveling at a high rate of speed with the driver side tail light out, and did not stop when the officer first got behind her and turned on her lights.
Ogle allegedly continued to drive, and when she finally came to a stop at an apartment complex, she took off again after the officer exited her vehicle. Ogle’s car reached speeds of about 80 miles per hour until, around the intersection of Howe and University, she ran a red light and collided with another vehicle that was entering the intersection on its green light. 
Deputy District Attorney Sylvia La Rosa called to the stand the officer that was involved in the chase with Ogle, who testified that after Ogle collided with the other vehicle the officer had to request fire assistance for both vehicles.
The officer said she questioned Ogle, who claimed she didn’t initially see the officer’s lights and fled because she didn’t have her license on her person and didn’t want to get caught without it.
The vehicle that Ogle collided with was immediately inoperable and both occupants were lying on the ground—the driver was transported to the hospital with an apparent leg injury, also saying she said she had some pain in her ankle, back, and sternum. She also had some bruised ribs.
Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Cerri argued to Judge Michael Sweet that the prosecution had not established evidence of serious bodily injury.
“This person said my ankle hurt, my back and I had a bruised rib. We don’t know anything about the circumstances, except we do know that a bruised rib is not in it of itself serious bodily injury. No medical records have been provided to give the court some reason to hold to answer on that element,” said Cerri.
Cerri insisted there is no indication of injury and all the individual said is that “it hurt,” and that the DA cannot get a holding order on such slim evidence because serious bodily injury is something more than moderate harm.
“I agree with Ms. Cerri that it’s thin, I would have expected more explication of injury. However, taken in total the way the officer described the injuries, she talks about multiple injuries, having to take her to the hospital and it was a collision involving a car coming at 80 miles per hour,” noted Judge Sweet.
He added that for preliminary hearing purposes those injuries did arise from the collision, although it would’ve been nice to have more evidence of that. And he ruled the defendant should stand trial.
Cerri was adamant and, interrupting the judge, said, “I would submit to you that there is no evidence of such injuries, which is why it was not brought [by the prosecution].”
Cerri said she will file a PC § 995 motion, which asks the trial judge in a felony case to dismiss the charges. The defense makes this motion after the preliminary hearing but before the trial.
“I understand that, you made your record and you can make your 995,” Judge Sweet responded, again admitting there isn’t a lot of evidence pointing to the serious bodily injuries but the testimony from the officer is sufficient enough for preliminary purposes.
The court set trial for May 10.
William McCurry is a fourth year at Sacramento State, majoring in Criminal Justice. He is from Brentwood, California.
To sign up for our new newsletter – Everyday Injustice – https://tinyurl.com/yyultcf9
Support our work – to become a sustaining at $5 – $10- $25 per month hit the link:
