Manslaughter Charges Filed in Crash That Killed Walnut Creek Pedestrian

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office filed charges this week, alleging a 70-year-old man had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he lost control of his pickup  on Treat Boulevard July 17 and struck and killed a 57-year-old Walnut Creek woman. 

Ruel Sasser faces three counts of vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated in the death of Kathleen Joan Moorhead, said Deputy District Attorney Steven Bolen. A blood-alcohol test taken shortly after the Treat Boulevard crash showed that Sasser's blood-alcohol level was 0.15, or nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08. 

Although arrested immediately after the crash, Sasser is no longer in custody. Bolen said the court will set a date for Sasser to appear for arraignment and for bail to be set in his case. 

At about 6 p.m. Saturday, July 17, Sasser was driving a 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.  An attorney, Moorhead lived in a condominium complex nearby, property records show. 

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

Moorhead was an attorney, working at the Fidelity National Financial in Walnut Creek, according to California State Bar Association records. 

Bar records also show that Moorhead was admitted to the bar in 1986 after receiving her undergraduate degree at Columbia University in New York and her law degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.