LAGUNA NIGUEL : Deputy D.A. on Trial Over Parking Battle

A deputy district attorney charged with reckless driving listened in court Wednesday as witnesses testified that she cut into line and hit a pedestrian as she outmaneuvered another motorist for a parking spot at Saddleback Community College in July.

Witnesses testified in a South County Municipal Court trial that Kelly W. MacEachern, 39, accelerated her van into the parking space shortly before 5:30 p.m. on July 20 although Saddleback student John Redmond Stevens was walking in her path.

“She didn’t stop,” testified Carine Topal-Gorsky of Laguna Niguel, who also had been waiting for a parking spot before taking her child to swimming lessons at the college pool.

MacEachern, who has been with the district attorney’s office for 12 years and is assigned to the family support division, is charged with reckless driving causing bodily injury, a misdemeanor.

Because the district attorney’s office would have a conflict in trying one of its own staff members, it has turned prosecution over to the state attorney general’s office in San Diego.

The case, being tried before Municipal Court Judge Martin Suits, continues today.

On Wednesday, Stevens, 22, testified that he was walking across the open space when MacEachern “suddenly swerved toward me.”

Stevens said he was unable to get out of the van’s way and was hit below his right knee and thrown, spread-eagled, onto the vehicle’s hood. Stevens said he pounded on the windshield and told MacEachern to stop, and when she applied the brakes, he rolled to the passenger side. Stevens said he then opened the passenger door and yelled at MacEachern that she had just hit him. MacEachern told him to close the door, which he did, and she then got out of the car with her two children as if nothing had happened, Stevens testified.

Stevens, Topal-Gorsky and another motorist said MacEachern virtually ignored their attempts to talk to her as she walked her kids to the swimming pool.

MacEachern has told authorities she thought Stevens was attempting to attack her and her children.

Renee Susan Thomas of Laguna Niguel testified that the incident began as she was waiting in her car at the head of a line for parking spots and MacEachern pulled alongside her.

When a car two or three slots down pulled out, they both began creeping toward the space, Thomas said. MacEachern then cut in front of her, blocking her from getting into the space, Thomas told the court.

Thomas and Topal-Gorsky both testified that Stevens motioned for Thomas to drive into the open space and for MacEachern to stop.

Under questioning from defense attorney Jack Earley, Stevens gave conflicting accounts of whether he had attempted to direct traffic in the lot.