Law&Crime Sidebar - SUNDAY 'Glamorous' Trooper's Behavior Questioned After Deadly Crash

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

A trooper in Washington who’s responsible for informing the public about investigations is now the one making the news. Authorities say Sarah Clasen crashed her car into a young motorcyclist, Jhoser Sanchez, killing her. Her resistance to doing sobriety tests instantly raised red flags. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber takes a closer look at body camera footage of Clasen’s arrest with Dan Morgan, the managing partner of personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. We are out on 240 at Village Parkway with a likely fatal collision. State started taking it, but then realized that one of the involved drivers is an off-duty state A trooper in Washington state who's responsible for informing the public about investigations is now the one making the news. Authorities say she crashed her car into a young motorcyclist killing him, and her resistance in doing field sobriety tests instantly raised red flags. We are digging into recently released body cam footage, what's next for the trooper,

and what we know about the victim, all with the managing partner of powerhouse law firm Morgan and Morgan, Dan Morgan. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. 35-year-old Sarah Clayson has been a trooper with the Washington State Patrol since 2012, but right now she finds herself on the wrong side of the law because she could be facing a charge of vehicular homicide in the death of motorcyclists Joseer Sanchez, who she seemingly collided with on March 1st outside of Richland, Washington. And authorities believe she may have been intoxicated at the time of this crash. Now, Clayson was in her personal vehicle, told

police that she was returning home after picking up a pizza. When she said Sanchez, quote, came out of nowhere. She called 911, and at first didn't seem to think things were that serious, or at least that's what it appeared to be. Are you injured at all? No. Okay. And it said or in a key is that right yes okay okay okay did you hit a motorcycle yeah we are okay do you see if the person's injured or breathing i i think everybody's okay uh let me let me get out and check but once clayson was out of the car she realized just how bad things were yeah we have no pulse on a i believe a pedestrian I can if I'm a first responder you are a first responder if you want to start CPR we can definitely get that going

okay I want to start CPR okay now first responders told police that Klayson was doing CPR on the victim when they arrived but Sanchez who was just 20 years old was rushed to a hospital but he didn't make it It is a horrible situation. And now we're trying to figure out what happened. So now we have this police body cam video that shows Richland Washington police responding to the scene. And it's state patrols jurisdiction, but once they realized that one of their own was involved, they had another local agency come in. We are out on 240 at Village Parkway with a likely fatal collision.

State started taking it, but then realized that one of the involved drivers is an off-duty state cooper. and they have a second fatal collision out in West Virginia that they're now dealing with as well. So I talked to their sergeant and I just spoke with Rabie and Mason, and we all agree that we'll take this from Slope. So you guys can come out. It sounds like state troopers are calling out their detectives to help do the physical evidence to the scene, but they request that we run the investigation. All right. So to talk about the story, analyze more of the police body cam. I want to bring in friend of the show, Dan Morgan, managing partner of Powerhouse Personal,

injury law firm Morgan and Morgan, a great partner of ours. Dan, it's so good to see you. Have you worked on cases before where a law enforcement officer is involved in some sort of deadly incident off duty? Off duty. I've dealt with cases with on duty cops and pursuits that unfortunately have struck cars and resulted in death. I'm trying to think off duty. I'm sure they've come across our office. We deal with so many cases, tragic cases as well that I'm sure it has happened. Definitely I've dealt with off duty officers. being in serious, serious accidents, though. Because my question was, in terms of, you know, before we even get to the criminal charges

or the potential criminal charges, like from a lawsuit point of view, would the police department be on the hook? If you have an officer, let's just take the scenario here, take allegations, maybe it's true, off duty, and let's say, for example, she was responsible, and let's say she was intoxicated, would the police department be responsible? No, there would really be no way to bring in the police department in that. situation, you know, maybe if she was in the vehicle and then, you know, if she had a cruiser that she took to and from work and she was off duty. But in the car, you can, you get, there's a,

there's an avenue to bring in the law, the law enforcement agency. But in a scenario like this with an off-do cop doing, you know, off-duty activities such as this, drinking and then driving, you can't then go and loop them in and say, hey, you had an employee, you know, because then it would be the Wild Wild West when any of these things happen. You'd be bringing employees, not just law enforcement employees, but any employer. Hey there, everybody. So I want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this episode of Sidebar.

Always love talking about them. Now, here is the incredible thing about Morgan and Morgan. And one of the reasons why I like talking about them so much. Hey, say something about our big wins. I'm not supposed to come on camera. The reason, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest personal injury law firm, is so big.

sure you can guess it, is because they win a lot. And that's, I don't forget huge verdict. Yeah, it was, they've won big verdicts, $6.8 million in New York, $26 million in Philadelphia. You see, the thing about them is they don't settle for low ball insurance offers from insurance companies, which is something. You mentioned that you can submit a claim from your couch at home and on your phone. Dan, they've completely modernized the process by submitting your claim, talking to your legal team. It's all done straight from your smartphone. Again, that's something that...

With eight clicks, eight clicks or less. Eight clicks or less. Yes. You can see if you have a case in just a few minutes. A thousand lawyers. All right, you know what, Dan? If you really think you can do better, maybe you should just do it yourself.

What Jesse was getting at is if you've ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. You can submit a claim in eight clicks or less. Start your claim. Just visit... for the people.com slash lc sidebar well came a little too close to me it hurt me a little bit i'm probably actually going to have to hire you guys now but uh that was well said that was well said talk to me about what the complication could be in terms of a defendant okay so either

she's a criminal defendant or she's a defendant in a lawsuit as a member of law enforcement is that a complicated factor in a case like this uh you know in terms of of how a jury would view her in terms of the evidence? Just what should we be, what should we be thinking about in terms of her role here, even though, again, she was off duty. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's definitely going to be an important factor when it gets to the, you know, the trial aspect of the case, if it gets that far from a jury standpoint, because you're going to take the defendant as you find them. And if it's a law enforcement agency, well, who better, who knows more about the rules than law enforcement agency. You know, I read that she even was doing PSA's

about not drinking under the influence and not being a distracted driver about a year before this happened. So, you know, those clips, those videos, those are going to be, you know, if I'm, if I'm the plaintiff attorney on the case, those are going to be some of my first exhibits, you know, don't, this is she, she knows what happened here. She knows what she did was wrong. She knew better than anybody that these actions are happening, that she even did a PSA to stop them from happening. And then she's the person that ends up being the at-fall driver in one of the accidents that a year before she's trying to prevent. So yeah, I mean, it's a terrible optics if you're defending that case where you don't want to get in the court. You'd probably

want to either settle before or take a plea deal. No, that's a good point. I want to get into the body cam with you and there's a lot to get into. So this was recently released by Richland PD and it shows a traffic officer approaching Clayson. Now it's unclear what Sanchez's condition was at this time. He had been taken to a hospital. We don't know if officers unseen have any sort of update. So that could be maybe one reason that Clayson seems so calm when she speaks with police that she doesn't realize maybe what is happening yet. Take a look.

Hey. No. How's going? You want to talk over here real quick? Yeah. Okay. So I'm Steve and with the traffic unit. So just, I don't this is probably uncomfortable, but we're just going to treat this like as if it was anything else.

And we want to figure out what was going on just, you know, just know, just nor do it. to rule anything out. Yeah. Like, obviously, you know, it just is important to rule everything out as it is to confirm everything. So, I'm just getting here, so I know you already answered some questions from the other guys, but generally what happened? So I went and picked up a Domino's Pizza.

Okay. I was turning left in here. I live right over there on Wild Canyon Way. Okay. I saw what I thought was a Car with One Headlight out. Okay. Right, just passed over, the reflective sign is that white one? Okay, sure.

And so I was slowing in the turn lane and saw him there, and I was like, oh, I got enough time. Okay. I turned, and as soon as I turned, just felt boom. Okay, okay. So as you're turning, you thought he was further away? No, he was definitely past that reflective sign when I saw him. Okay. and then I think I just, like I say, I thought it was a car with a headlight out.

Okay. You didn't realize it was a motorcycle and you realize the rate of speed they were going at? So you think he was going pretty quick? Yes, because from that reflected sign, it's kind of, I turned, I lived here. So that's always my, like, general if they're past that sign, then you got plenty of time if you're already slowing to turn in. Gotcha. So you know, based on making this turn and numerous times, that you know. how to judge that distance yeah like okay good to go okay all right so you're

probably aware we're just gonna like run this like like normal so I'm just gonna run you through some voluntary field subprided test if you're willing to okay yeah I don't think I don't want to do any okay all right what about the PBT you're willing to do voluntary PVT I don't want to any test base on the okay okay okay understood what about obviously you just gave me a verbal statement Are you willing to write down a statement on paper? Yeah. Okay.

All right. Let me go grab a statement form and I'll let you fill that out. And then I know you want to get out of here. So we'll do that. That way we just kind of lock everything in for today. Sounds good. All right. Yeah, just give me a few minutes here.

All right, Dan, there is a lot to break down in this. And I think one of the interesting things is, I mean, in your practice, where you deal with accidents so many times, you're watching this body cam. It is very different seeing an interaction here with one member of law enforcement speaking to another member of law enforcement. What was your takeaway from how she was reacting and what she was saying and also how the officer was questioning her? Yeah, there's definitely a nonchalant kind of demeanor about her, especially given the circumstances, you know, that she was just going through, you know, administering the CPR and things of that nature and knowing that he's left an ambulance to kind of be so nonchalant about the scenario. But yeah, it was kind of a laid back conversation. Her story seems somewhat off, you know, that she was making, trying to justify for the reason it's happening. She also kind of knows how the investigations go.

And he could kind of tell, too, just by, you know, if an officer asked me if I was willing to submit to a PPP type of two tests, you know, I would have no idea what he's talking about. But clearly they're sharing the same lingo and nomenclature there. So he's talking to her as if he knows he's an officer and going through kind of the checks that, you know, field sobriety, know this, all right, you already gave this statement. We'll give us to written, yes. So, yeah, definitely seems like he's, you know, if it was another DUI suspect that was not a law for him, an officer, I think there would be a whole different, you know,

tone, a whole different, you know, type of accusatory. If not, why not, you know, let's not get you out here early. It's like, no, okay, if you refuse the blow test, you know what's going to happen, you know, you're most like going to end up down, either doing a blood test or at least forfeiting your license and go into, you know, in jail, not getting you out of here.

And by the way, I'm going to get to the fact that she refused these tests in a second, but just on a layman's point of view, because you handle these cases a lot of times, and we will get into the blood test because the results haven't been released yet, but does it appear that she might be intoxicated? You know, just from my perspective, there were certain times when she's speaking where it almost sounded like slurred speech. I don't know for sure, and obviously we'll see what the test come back with, but did you get that sense? I got, no, the sense that she was somewhat with it. It didn't seem like,

you know, you see some of the body cams that we watch and it's, oh, yeah, this person was, is loaded right now. I really didn't see that. I did see that. It was kind of a nonchalant, but that as soon as she, you know, denied the test, then, yeah, obviously your attendance go up, you know, there's a least, there's a reason you deny it. You know, I know, I think she alluded to some stuff later on about maybe a glass of wine, but didn't answer it. But, you know, there's reasons why you don't answer it because if me and you, if we know we have nothing to hide and 0.00 is going to get us out of there. Let's hurry up and blow and get the show on the road. Right. Okay. So let's keep that in mind because the officer has Clayson fill out a statement about what happened. And then he broaches

whether she would be willing to do field sobriety tests to rule out any sort of intoxication. Well, I'll be honest with you. I would love to rule out impairment. but without the fields, it is hard to rule that out. Obviously, it's voluntary. I won't ask you again, but there may always be that question down the road. I just rather not. Okay. Yeah.

I understand, but I know how it goes to. Yeah. What do you mean you know how it goes? I, even if there's like a little, if I had something, had a gloss on earlier or something like that, I just don't want, I just don't want to do it. Okay. Yeah. But, no, I definitely don't feel impaired. I don't feel like there was an issue.

Okay. I, did you have a glass wine earlier? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Do you want to grab the furrow? No.

I think she has something on board. Do you really? Yeah. Yeah. We have to. Is there going to be enough to go search for her? So, yeah, I'll write it. I mean, unless you want...

What changed? So I was just studying her. She got a couple misspelled words on here. Okay. She wrote sigh and she said 100 feet. She, um, sorry, I'm going to look fast. She, she estimated the, uh, the distance between the guy on the motorcycle and her to be 100 feet, which that's way more than 100. That's like, yes, 500 feet.

Um, she said she was almost through her turn when clearly she was at the very beginning of her turn. Right. Her eyes are a little bit glassy, a little bit. Those lights be, but could be, could be, but we got to err on the side of caution. Okay. I do not have a great sense of smell, but I think I smelled a little bit of odor of alcohol, enough for me to say. And then I told her, I'm like, hey, we just want to rule out impairment. And by you not doing it, I'm like, I'm not going to ask you again, but I'm like, we can't rule it out.

And she's like, yeah, well, if I would have had a glass of wine earlier, I know how this goes. And I said, did you have a glass of wine earlier? And she said, I'm not going to after that. So I think with everything, we have to back a lot of knowledge. Yeah, we have to. I mean, I will write this. search weren't um oh um but yeah i'm still reporting i i would have loved to have ruled it out okay so dan you are seeing this officer picking up on certain clues here and the fact that she

has chosen not to take the tests um and by the way that's her right to do she doesn't have to take those tests right i mean talk to us about absolutely her refusal to do that and how that could affect the case and and what you're taking away from his observations exactly yeah and that and that's in a lot of states have that rule. There's different implications behind whether you take the test or do the test or not do the test or blow or not blow. A lot of states will allow you to not do the blow test, but instead have your blood drawn, vice versa. But a lot of times there's just implications. I know in the state of Florida, for instance, you would lose your license for a year.

A lot of states have that same thing. So even if, you know, you refuse to blow, which is you're right, you can still have, you know, your rights of the drive, you know, stricken for your refusal to do so. So there's our implications there. But, yeah, I mean, eventually, if you know that's going to be the worst evidence or the best evidence for you. So, you know, some criminal, and again, we're more personal injury side attorney, so we're not on the criminal as much. But yeah, you're going to have a lot better time defending your client with no blood test, no, no blood alcohol, and just the videos of them acting, you know. But this, a jury watching this video could easily say she's not drunk, she's acting fine.

you know, she talked to the officer normally. And what would be the defense perspective, even in the litigation, what would be the defense perspective, if you're representing her, listen, she doesn't have to take these tests? How do you say that doesn't make her look suspicious or that, you know, it doesn't show that she's liable? Because somebody else might look into like, well, of course she doesn't want to take the test because she doesn't want to show what really happened here. So what's the counterargument?

Yeah, I mean, you really have to hammer down on, you know, this is a right. This is what she, you know, that she's an officer. she knows her rights. She knows that she doesn't have to and that this evidence, you know, wouldn't be admissible. On the same time, you have all the time you have murder suspects that plead the fifth and don't get on the stand and the jury can't say, well, he didn't testify, he must be guilty. You know, the judge has to really do a good, his part of laying in the fact that her not blowing, you cannot, you know, that cannot be the reason why you find her guilty. you know, that cannot be considered.

You can only consider what's in evidence. There's nothing of that in the evidence or refusal to do so. You know, cannot be presumed as guilt. So, you know, there's a lot of that. But, yeah, I mean, if you're a juror and you're on there, I mean, we're all human. So despite the best judge's instruction and this and that, you still a little bit about, you know, you're going to wonder, you know, if not, why not? Why didn't she blow if it was 0.00? And if it was 0.0, you know, below the limit, you know, point.

0.002, she's fine too. So if she was really scared of a sip a glass of wine, it's going to be fine. And look, so let me tell you what happened. So the officer confers with his colleagues and decides it is appropriate to arrest Ms. Clayson. All right. So like I said, we were really trying to rule alcohol out. I'm not convinced that alcohol wasn't a factor. So right now you are under arrest. Okay. Let's go ahead and put your hands on your back. So we will be doing a search warrant for blood, okay? That way there will be no questions. And this is interesting because as she's loaded into the back of that patrol car,

Clayson seems to be changing her mind about doing some of those field sobriety tests, but it's too late. Well, this, so we're trying to treat this like any other. incident and typically once the opportunity kind of comes and you know you say you don't want to do it it's voluntary and then if you want to do it um well i'd do voluntary breakfast at the AC but i just didn't want to do the fields okay so you wanted to submit to i think with this the significance of this i think it's probably we're going to probably need a search warrant okay that's fine all right appreciate you yeah no worries of course

Dan, talk to me about that. That seemingly now I'll take at least one of the tests. What does that tell you? I mean, you know, that one, she doesn't like the situation that she's in in the bag of a cop car in handcuffs and, you know, let's try to get out of here and maybe not go to the, you know, spend my night in the local jail. That's probably the first thought going there at it. But to that, you know, again, it might be that she knows, hey, I did have a glass of wine.

It's been three hours since this accident happened now. there's a really good chance that, you know, I'm going to be well under than what it was two hours ago when this whole thing started. You know, there's a lot to go as into that. Even with the blood being drawn, you know, when does that actually get drawn? It could be, you know, nine hours, eight hours after the initial collision happened. And if it was three glasses of wine, she's going to wait out the time and the limit's going to be down. So there is, you know, there could be some gainmanship there. I don't want to assume anything.

But, yeah, that she's willing to now, that she said she didn't want to do the field sobriety, but she will do the breathalyzer. It could just be that she knows her limits. It's now going to be low and she wants to blow and get out of there. But I think we all both, you know, we heard the first tape. She clearly denied all tests before she was in handcuffs. So let me tell you what happens next. So she is taken to the police station where she's put into this interview room, handcuffed to a bar on the wall.

And the officer leaves his body cam in the room with her. And she sits there for three hours. And when the officer comes back in, he lets Clayson know that he's gotten a warrant for a blood draw so they head over to the hospital to make that happen all right so they did get a warrant for the blood so we'll go to do that down okay can you do restaurant yeah absolutely there's one right across the way so I don't bother I'm not going anywhere yeah yep just right here I'll just be right outside here And a police spokesperson confirmed Clayson's blood was collected during a news conference.

Probable cause was arrested or was established for her arrest and she was subsequently booked into the Benton County Jail on a 72-hour hold for vehicular homicide. Investigators obtained a court authorized search warrant for a blood sample from her, which was collected and is pending an analysis. That's a standard procedure for a case of this magnitude where there's a vehicular homicide or even a vehicular salt blood draw is the frequent way to go. And the spokesperson said it could take weeks or even months to get the results of that blood test, which, Dan, I'm confused about why would it take so long? I'm a little confused by that. I'm confused by to hearing that. I mean, I think if I went to my local quest, I'd have those results, you know, in 24 hours. So I'm not sure why it's taking that long.

Maybe it has to go through a whole different protocol since there's a vehicle homicide connected to it in the state of Washington that they have. I know the traffic homicide report and a lot of the states that we're in, yeah, it does take a month, maybe more, to get the final results of the full investigation because they want to put it all all at once for the family. You know, you'll get the crash incident report with the basic information, but it'll take, it'll do the whole traffic homicide investigation to get the results. So maybe their plan is to not release the results of the blood test until they put out the, entire report. So that's why it's being held up. But yeah, we're living in 2025. We can get those results somewhat quickly. And by the way, even though she, you know, hasn't been charged, and this is still under investigation, it is very important for law enforcement. I think with the need with the press conference and the release of the body cam for a sense of transparency and

they're doing things by the book and not. And if there was a conflict of interest, they're trying to mitigate that and saying she is being treated like any other motorist who is involved in this kind of crash. That's really important in this, right, Dan? It is, exactly. They don't want to, you know, and I think even seeing this footage, a lot of people are going to say, well, I know if this was me or this was my son or if this was my, you know, wife husband in the situation, they wouldn't be getting niceties. But yeah, I mean, they definitely want to be able to say, we did it by the book. We had, we, we, we smelled it. She refused tests. You know, if they had the tape of she refused to test and did

a written statement and did this and they let her go, you know, then it looks, then it just smells to high heaven. So they're at least trying to keep the appearances of this is how things are doing it. And for the most part, they are. I mean, a lot of, like we talked about, a lot of time, did go by. He said she was in there for three hours. She's at the scene for probably another two. So, you know, five or six hours between the blood draw and that, and the incidents is very favorable for her. But, you know, that's not too uncommon in other cases for there to be that type of gap. By the way, police also confirmed that Sanchez, the victim in this case, he didn't have the special endorsement on his license, which was needed in Washington, to ride a motorcycle. Does that affect anything here? Does that affect the legal analysis or at the end of the day, you know, he's still killed?

Does it become a question of how did that happen? Does it matter that he apparently didn't have that proper documentation? From a civil standpoint, you know, most likely, you know, really from both. standpoint, most likely not because of the end results would happen, you know, even if he didn't have a license, you know, but was he at fault, you know, if they come to the conclusion that he was speeding or this out or the other thing, you know, it could exonerate her and that. But that one fact that he didn't have his license, probably is going to play too big of a factor in into the case. Now, if it got to the trial setting, uh, and I'm her attorney defending her, I'm obviously making that a huge red flag. This guy shouldn't even been on the road that night. He wasn't allowed to be on this motorcycle. You know, he wasn't licensed to be on the motorcycle. He was on the motorcycle. He was on the motorcycle. like Lenny White, but for him illegally driving on the motorcycle, this never, you know, you go down that rabbit hole and spin it for the jury to kind of get that emotion evoked. But as far as an insurance company looking at it and saying, we're not going to settle this case because of that, you know, that's not going to be a factor or a police prosecutor saying, we're not

prosecuting this case because he, you know, that's not going to happen either. Now, let me go to the criminal aspect first thing or the potential criminal aspect. So she was booked on a 72 hour hold, saw a judge, was released on her own recognizance, a prosecutor asked for $150,000 bail. The judge noted that Clayson has significant ties to the community. She was cooperative on scene, not concerned about Clayson fleeing. But her release does come with conditions. So she has to have an ignition interlocked device in any car she's going to be driving. It's a breathalyzer that doesn't let the driver get moving until they can prove they're sober.

And while a Benton County prosecutor appeared at that initial hearing, the state says the case will be handled over to a special prosecutor who's going to be the one actually deciding if Clayson will end up facing a vehicular homicide charge. And for now, she has not been officially charged. She's on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case. It's unclear if she's going to be paid during that time. But the Richland Police Department investigator was asked during the news conference last week what the difference was between a charge of vehicular homicide and vehicular manslaughter. vehicular homicide was due to the presence of intoxicating substances in her system.

What our officers observed and what they believe to be there. Now, Clayson's defense attorney told reporters that there's not enough evidence to charge Clayson with anything. Do you think she's going to be charged with vehicular homicide? I think if the blood test is not in her favor, I think, you know, it's very, very likely. And look, in all of this, and we've talked a lot about the body cam, the logistics of it, the legality of it. We can't forget the victim in this case, 20-year-old Joseer Sanchez, was born in Venezuela, had recently graduated from high school. He lived here in the United States. He lived in the Tri-Cities area for around seven years, according to his family.

He was working as a forklift operator at Lamb Weston. It's a food processing plan. And his family spoke with Apple Valley News in a very emotional interview. His mother said, when you see Zohar, you feel amazing like the sun is shining on you. That was Zohar, the sunshine of our family. Now, we've lost him. It's hard for me to even talk about my son. And Sanchez's father told Apple Valley News that they just won a fair resolution, saying,

when I heard it couldn't be an accident, that the driver was also an off-duty WSP trooper. I thought, oh, no, now the truth is even more difficult to uncover. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but we want the truth. We want justice. And the family started a GoFundMe to raise money for funeral expenses. His mother wrote on the GoFundMe, he was a bright and loving soul who brought joy to everyone around him. And his absence has left a void that we cannot begin to describe.

Now, Dan, you and your firm are all about the victims. I have to imagine these are some of the toughest conversations to have with family members of those who were killed in these kinds of accidents and these kinds of cases. what do you tell the family? What are those conversations like? No, it's really tough. It's, you know, no amount of money is ever going to bring their loved ones back. No amount of money is ever really going to fill that hole of what was lost, you know, as her describing him as the sunshine of, you know, her life.

You know, no amount of money is ever going to bring that sunshine back, you know, into her life. You know, it's always going to be a void. So, you know, those conversations are tough and to really let them know, you know, this what we're going after isn't to fulfill that hole. That's never going to be filled, but it's to bring some sort of justice. some sort of closure to the circumstances and to allow and to allow not only the the defendants in the case, but to let the community as a whole know that, you know, his life mattered, that there was value here. There was value loss. And we are recognizing this loss as a society.

It's a sad case. Really, your heart goes out to the family here. And we'll keep a careful eye on what happens next on the legal aspect of it. But Dan Morgan of Morgan and Morgan, so good seeing you. thank you so much for taking the time and appreciate your perspective and your partnership with Morgan and Morgan. We're really happy to be a part of it. So thanks so much, Dan. It's great to see you. Awesome. Thanks for having me back. Wish it was talking about happier circumstances, but any time you need me, I'm here for you. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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