Driver Freed in Day-Care Center Crash : Accident: Deputy D.A. says evidence doesn’t justify filing of charges. Hospital reports injured children’s condition improving.

WESTMINSTER —  No criminal charges will be filed against Darrell Emerson Nelson, whose car careened into a Garden Grove day-care center and injured six children, authorities announced Wednesday.

“There wasn’t any evidence,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John B. Lett said. “At this time, there’s not enough to file on.”

Lett did not elaborate, but Garden Grove Police Investigator Michael Claybaugh said that Nelson, 43, of Garden Grove tested negative for drugs and that his blood alcohol level was 0.04%, well below the 0.08 standard for drunk driving.

A visibly shaken Nelson was released from Theo Lacy Jail in Orange on Wednesday night, walking straight to a waiting car and refusing to talk.

His niece, who wouldn’t give her name, said as she waited in the jail lobby: “This is all really too much. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Nelson, who has a clean driving record according to the Department of Motor Vehicles, told police that he was traveling east on Westminster Boulevard at 30 to 40 m.p.h. when he swerved to avoid an oncoming van.

Of the six children hospitalized in Santa Ana and Orange, three remain at UCI Medical Center in Orange, where they are improving and listed in good condition, according to hospital spokeswoman Dorothy Jean.

Claybaugh said Nelson may have failed a balance-and-coordination test at the scene because of injuries sustained in the accident.

The announcement that Nelson will not be charged came after Garden Grove police and members of the district attorney’s office conferred for more than an hour.

About the same time, several miles away at the Early Childhood Schools Children’s Village, the concrete playground was filled with children playing on swings and riding bikes. The cinder-block wall that Nelson’s car had hit had not been repaired, but the gaping hole was blocked by a large plant.

Bonnie Salsgiver, director of the day-care center, said she did not want to comment on the district attorney’s action.

“I have very mixed feelings, and that’s all I can say,” she said.

“At this time I don’t want to say anything about it,” said Sallie Beauleau, mother of 2-year-old Amanda Beauleau, who was treated for concussion at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. “I’m too upset, I don’t want to say anything about the man until I know more about it.”

Cheryl Stoopes, mother of 2-year-old Rachel Stoopes, who was struck by the car and suffered bumps and bruises, said: “It obviously was an accident. If he had had anything in his system, of course I would have wanted him prosecuted for something, but he was a regular guy. It could have been me.”

Stoopes said she kept Rachel and her brother Ryan, 4, who also attends Children’s Village, at home Wednesday but would try to take them back to the day-care center today.

“I don’t know how they’re going to react,” Stoopes said. “If (Rachel’s) the least bit bothered I will take her out and find another school.”

She said her daughter understood what happened on Monday at the center but hasn’t talked about it since.

“When I saw her, she said: ‘Mommy, the car runned over me,’ ” Stoopes said.

On Wednesday afternoon, three firefighters who responded to the scene on Monday took stuffed animals to the children still hospitalized at UCI Medical Center.

“They were very concerned,” said Mike Janovick, press secretary for the Garden Grove Firefighters Assn., which bought the toys. “It’s pretty traumatic and emotional. They’re concerned about (the children’s) well-being and thought it would be a nice gesture to meet with them.”