Grand Junction, CO : Plea deal rejected in crash with injury on April, Tuesday 4th 2017

A Mesa County judge Tuesday rejected a deal for a former Mount Garfield Middle School principal accused of injuring two women in a hit-and-run wreck, calling it “unconscionable” because of the level of one woman’s injuries.

Hal Templeton was allegedly using his cellphone and speeding when he rear-ended another car in September, injuring the mother and daughter who were inside it, and driving away, turning himself in hours later. He was cited on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless driving and failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving injuries.

Prosecutor Tyler O’Dell negotiated a plea that dismissed the reckless driving count and could have resulted in Templeton being sentenced to at most a year in jail, a $1,000 fine and the forfeiture of his driver’s license.

Later O’Dell learned the older woman involved in the wreck had obtained a note from her family doctor saying that her concussion constituted “severe bodily injury,” potentially the threshold for a felony charge. Several of the woman’s family members on Tuesday urged Judge Craig Henderson to reject the plea deal, saying it wasn’t harsh enough.

O’Dell, however, said he wasn’t convinced that Templeton had committed reckless driving, as he didn’t think evidence supported the initial report to police that Templeton was driving more than 80 mph.

Henderson rejected the deal because of testimony about the woman’s injury.

District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said his office will try to confirm the doctor’s opinion with an independent neurologist.

“We are frustrated that the judge rejected a plea agreement which guaranteed a conviction to the most serious offense charged, his driver’s license being revoked, subjected him to up to a year in jail and $1,000 fine for the possibility that an uncharged offense might be able to be proven,” Rubinstein wrote in an email.

Templeton was placed on leave from his principal position after the wreck and later was transferred to another District 51 position.

Source :
Plea deal rejected in crash with injury