Concord Man Enters Not Guilty Plea in DUI Death of Walnut Creek Pedestrian

As about 30 relatives and  friends of Kathleen Moorhead looked on, a 70-year-old Concord man pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he was driving under the influence of alcohol when he struck and killed the 57-year-old Walnut Creek woman as she was out walking on a July evening. 

Through his attorney, Ruel Sasser, a grandfatherly man with gray hair and glasses and dressed in a blue blazer, entered his plea to charges of  gross vehicular manslaugher while intoxicated and related DUI counts. 

Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira said Sasser had been drinking throughout the afternoon of Saturday, July 17. He was also trying to make a call on his cell phone when he lost control of his pickup truck on Treat Boulevard and struck and killed Moorhead, who was on the sidewalk, returning home from shopping at the Countrywood center. Sasser's blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.8. 

Sasser's attorney, William Gagen, said his client feels "horrendous" about what happened, wants to take full responsibility and resolve the case as soon as possible to help Moorhead's family avoid the trauma of going through the legal system. 

Gagen acknowledged that Sasser had been out that afternoon, and had consumed alcohol at three different restaurants. He was celebrating the birthday of a former colleague at Chevron. But Gagen said his client has never been a heavy drinker and has not touched alcohol or driven a car since Moorhead's death. Gagen added that his client is a "family man" who has long been married and has lived in the same home for more than three decades. 

"It's horrible," Gagen said about the accident, Moorhead's death, her family's loss, and his client's situation. "He feels horrible.

Gagen acknolwedged that he will  try to save his  elderly client, who has no prior record, from a prison sentence.

However, Sequeira said the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office takes DUI vehicular manslaughter cases very seriously and does not know of one in the county in the past 26 years in which the defendant did not receive a prison sentence. 

"On one side, you ask, how can you send a 70-year-old man to state prison?" Sequeira said. "Well, that's the way it goes. This is a horrific accident, a pedestrian was killed on the sidewalk." 

Sequeira also might ask the judge to increase bail for Sasser, who is out of custody on $200,000 bail. 

Sequeira's position came as a relief to Moorhead's family, including her 82-year-old mother and surviving sister, who are suffering the second loss of a loved one to an alleged drunken driver.

Susan Rushton, Moorhead's oldest sister, was killed in 1969 at the age of 19 by a drunk driver in Richmond while she was driving home from work. Moorhead's mother, Betty Rushton, of Vacaville has now lost two of her three children to drunk drivers, family members said.

'This is the second time my mother has had to sit in court and face the man who killed her daughter," said Nancy Van Tassel, Moorhead's sister who, like, Moorhead, worked as an attorney at Fidelity National Title Insurance Company in Walnut Creek.

"When I tell people that this has happened to my family, they can't believe it," said Verity Van Tassel, Moorhead's niece. "We want to make sure that this never happens to any other family. We want people to know that actions have consequences." 

The investigation shows that Sasser had lunch that day at the Blackhawk Grille with former co-workers at Chevron Corporation, according to Sequeira and Dan O'Malley, a Walnut Creek attorney--and candidate for Contra Costa County District Attorney--who was hired by Moorhead's family to represent their interests in the case. Gagen said that Sasser had worked in IT for Chevron and was retired.  

Moorhead's family had asked the District Attorney's Office to charge Sasser with second-degree murder, but Sequeira said Sasser's lack of a record for alcohol-related offenses would make it difficult to prove he had the legal intent and level of awareness that his drinking and driving could cause someone's death.  

At about 6 p.m. July 17, Sasser was driving his pickup truck eastbound along six-lane Treat Boulevard, said Walnut Creek police Lt. Tim Barrett. Moorhead was walking on the sidewalk that runs along the eastbound lanes.  Moorhead, also a retired colonel with the US Army, lived in a condominium complex off Oak Road with her 27- pound Maine Coon cat, Moose.

Barrett said Sasser's pickup truck lost control just west of the Bancroft Road intersection. He crossed the median into the westbound lanes, then steered back across to the eastbound lanes. The truck jumped the curb and struck Moorhead. The truck also knocked down a fence that runs behind some homes in the Sunset Park development. 

Paramedics attempted to treat Moorhead at the scene, then rushed her to John Muir Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. Sasser was treated for injuries at a hospital and later booked into jail on charges including vehicular manslaughter.

Family and friends remember Moorhead as a tough attorney and a wonderful person with a fun-loving sense of humor. Verity Van Tassel said that some of Moorhead's former army colleagues attended both her memorial service and were present at Sasser's arraignment. 

"Everyone I spoke with who served with her said she was a great leader but she was very kind and fun," said Verity Van Tassel, who added that her aunt, while out in the field, leading those in her command, "never had a bad day." 

Moorhead was born September 26, 1952, in San Francisco and was the youngest of three girls, each born a year apart.  Her father was a career officer in the Air Force, and she spent her childhood moving from base to base in the United States and Europe.

Moorhead graduated from Novato High School in Novato, California, in 1969. In 1973, she received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Columbia University.  She served two years' active duty in the United States Navy, after which she resumed working as a civilian nurse, a career that lasted 13 years. 

She joined the United States Army Reserve in 1980 and served  in various units in Northern California.  She retired in 2003, having served as battalion commander and achieved the rank of colonel.

Moorhead earned a law degree from Golden Gate University in 1985 and was admitted to the California bar in 1986.  She began her legal career as an attorney specializing in medical and dental malpractice.  She joined Fidelity National Title Insurance Company in 2001 and was named head of the Northern California Regional Litigation Department in 2003.